cessity.

LIFE AND WORK OF THE EASTERN FARMER.

We are all familiar with the lavish praise bestowed--especially when
votes are to be secured--upon the "bone and sinew of the country;" but
the farmers themselves are very far from accepting as true, even if
sincere, the estimate of their qualities which the editor and the public
speaker so loudly profess.

The average farmer is precisely what any other average man would be who
had grown up under the same conditions. There is no mysterious charm
belonging to his occupation which removes him beyond the reach of the
influences by which all mankind are controlled. Coming from the same
original stock and inheriting the same peculiarities of race, he is
essentially the same as men in other vocations. The character of his
work, the necessities of his financial condition, and the social
surroundings amid which he has been reared, have had the same influence
in moulding his character that similar conditions have had in moulding
the characters of others.

Farming is in a certain sense the basis of all individual and national
prosperity; but the case would be more fairly stated were we to say that
farming happens to be the first step in an industrial process, many
steps of which are alike essential to civilization. The farmer produces
raw material, and without raw material the world must come to a stop;
but the butcher, the baker, the spinner, the weaver, and every artisan,
render as essential service in the development of this raw material into
the forms demanded by modern life, as does the farmer in growing it.

As a member of the farmer class, I hasten to disclaim for it any
_especial_ consideration given it because of its contribution to the
welfare of mankind. We are as useful as any other hard-working people,
no more and no less. We claim no higher appreciation for muscular effort
exerted in swinging the flail than for that applied to the wielding of
the hammer.

The controlling motive of a farmer in performing his work and carrying
on his business is the hope of material gain. He works for the money
that he expects to earn, and not with any conscious reference to the
service he is rendering to the world. In this capacity as a farmer he is
neither a philanthropist nor a patriot, only a man of business. If we
wish properly to estimate his character and his value as a factor of
modern civilization, we must not be misled by sentimental considerations
as to his rela