I, and those associated with me, are entitled to
all that is made above five per cent. By retaining the common stock
the surplus income will come to us. Neither will I destroy the home
value, because I shall associate the former owners with me in the
conduct of the estate and may give them some of the common stock, so
that they will be interested with me in making a profitable return. If
they wish to keep their money invested in the farm, they will be given
preferred stock in place of cash for their farms."

It is needless to say that the promoter never convinced his friend
that he could successfully invest for him a half million dollars along
the lines indicated. Nevertheless the corporate plan is not without
merit. For example, if a father should incorporate his farm, he could
provide for the inheritance of the preferred stock, among the heirs,
as he desires. He could give to the son who operates the farm all the
common stock, together with what preferred stock he is entitled or the
father may desire him to have. The common stock would provide the
means by which the income from the farm, which was due to the sons
skill and management, might go to him. As time went on the son could
acquire additional preferred stock from the father or other heirs, or
he could invest his earnings elsewhere, as might seem most expedient.
On the death of the parents, the preferred stock would be distributed
as inheritance or the will provided without in any way interfering
with the continuity of the farm enterprise. If at any time the son
desired to discontinue the management of the farm, all he would need
to do would be to dispose of his interest in the common stock at
whatever he might be able to secure from the man who succeeded to its
management. He could sell or retain his preferred stock.

Farming is the one remaining great industry that has not been
organized so that a single enterprise may have a continuous existence.
A corporation never dies, but at least three generations of men occupy
the farms of the United States each century.

CHAPTER IV

OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE

Some years ago, a prominent magazine contained an article entitled
"The American Farmer's Balance Sheet," in which a descendant of the
second and sixth Presidents of the United States was shown to have
made in one year a profit of over $19,000 from a 6,000-acre wheat farm
in North Dakota, and over