s that which separates the
savage from the philosopher.

Nature demands only strength, endurance; but man demands quality and
excellence, and he proceeds scientifically to accomplish his purpose. By
conscious design and a sort of mental architecture the animal to be is
planned, and the picture thus conceived in the brain of the breeder
becomes incarnated in the form, size and character of the animal. Not
only is the animal created with the desired quality as to its parts and
products, but its nature is transformed from fear and ferocity to that
of trust and docility.

For example the descendants of the wild horse are not only changed from
vicious brutes to trustful beasts of burden, but are also differentiated
into many different breeds to meet the demands of strength, speed or
endurance. Specimens of such breeds as the Belgian, Percheron or
Hambletonian exist as monuments to the breeder's art no less renowned
and for more useful purpose than anything in Nature, the likeness of
which the sculptor has wrought in marble or the artist has transferred
from life to canvass.

From the wild buffalo, presumably, the ideal strains of pedigree kine,
for beef or dairy products, have been created as surely and even more
scientifically than the sculptor has immortalized his ideals in granite
or marble.

Thus animal life is to the skillful breeder as clay in the hands of the
potter, and though a supersensitive and artificial generation may look
upon this form of genius as vulgar, it nevertheless is God's work and
the doers thereof are working with God. For without this incarnation of
quality into plant and animal life the world's population could not
supply its fundamental wants nor could civilization rise above the
animal instincts in man.

The farmer, therefore, is a most important personage, and his vocation
the most absolutely needful in all the world. The farmer is in very
truth a creator, certainly a co-creator, improving Nature by the aid of
science, just as the human mind and character are improved by means of
education. And when the prejudice of the ages has been rolled away the
name "farmer" will rank among the most envied names that enrich our
mother tongue. Here, indeed, may be verified the saving: "The first
shall be last and the last shall be first."

While we honor the sculptor, the painter or the poet whose genius
partakes of the immortal, and yet satisfies no hungry mouth, some degree
of honor might well be g