The Thoughts of a Farmer

THE THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. BY DR. JOSEPH M. TANNER. I— FARM LIFE. Being a farmer, I would like to tell your readers something about a farmer's life and a farmer's philosophy. Farmers are really philosophers, and have theories about life which perhaps most of them are too timid to express. You know, the classifica- tion of society changes. In ancient Rome the merchant belonged to the inferior type. Today, in America, he is at the top, espe- cially if he makes money. In Russia, a man who tills the soil is a mujik, an object of pity; in France he is a peasant, a man with a hoe, a degenerated specimen of a higher type that once existed; in America he, is a farmer, and he really prefers to be called a farmer, though there are many who are trying with commendable zeal to uplift his profession and call him an agriculturist. Now the business of farming, however scientific it becomes, should really make a man a farmer. But someone will ask me, What is the real difference between a farmer and an agriculturist? Sometime ago I read a joke, which like many jokes tell the truth in a fascinating way, and that, too, without offense. Someone was asked what the difference was between an agriculturist and a far- mer. The reply which contained both wit and philosophy was that an agriculturist is a man who makes his money in the city and goes on a farm to spend it, while a farmer is a man who makes his money on the farm and goes into the city to spend it. The gist of the answer really was that the farmer is the man who does things, while the agriculturist talks and experiments. It took us farmers a long time to pronounce correctly the word, agriculturist, and when we became slightly familiar with such exalted language,

14 IMPROVEMENT ERA. the modern agriculturist created for* us a new difficulty. We are now, if you please, agronomists. My neighbor is a farmer. He was once a school teacher. He uses good English, reads the newspapers, and is abreast current events. What makes him an interesting man is the fact that he can do things. He says that his father was a farmer, a successful farmer, that his father really enjoyed farm life, and that he him- self really likes work on the farm, because he inherited a desire to do things, and that after all there is more pleasure in doing than most people imagine. He says he likes to talk, but finds there is more real joy in what he does than in what he says, when he is doing and saying things that are proper and good. I am told that some boys stick up their noses at the idea of farming. Now I suspect that such boys are guilty of a folly of that kind, not because they really know what farming means, but there is nothing above their noses to keep them down, and that they would rise anyhow. You know there are some people who can stick up their noses without much effort. The life of the farmer is changing, When modern methods and the improvements that come along with civilized life made themselves felt on the farm, and especially when they made money- making on the farm easy, people began to have more respect for the occupation. Today the farmer is sometimes greatly in need of intelligence — intelligence coupled with the willingness and the ability to do things, and to do things at the right time. The man who is successful on the farm is the man who is full of plans, who thinks, and then works to his plans and materializes his thoughts. When our young men really learn to appreciate the reward which the farming of the future will bestow upon its devotees, they will take more kindly to the work. Old fashioned farming will then be a thjng of the past, just as old fashioned school teaching, old fashioned mechanics, and old fashioned merchants, are passing away. I wonder how many of our boys have heard of what certain men are doing on the farm in the southern part of Cache valley, what some ambitious beet growers are yearly adding to their stock of wealth. It would pay a young man to visit Bishop Farrell of Smithfield and accept his hospitality for a week. A pilgrimage to

THE THOUGHTS OF A FARMER. 15 Juab bench to see the Grace Brothers and the Paxmans would be remunerative. A winter in the school room with Dr. Widtsoe to the young man who possesses energy and intelligence would be the guarantee of a good future income. There are, today, perhaps, more openings on the farm, in stock-raising, fruit-raising, as well as in the cultivation of grain, than in any other occupation open to the youth of our country. Then, the farm is a source of real pleasure that no other oc- cupation in life gives. It is peculiarly the occupation of pleasure FARM FAVORITES. in that it guards young men against so many ailments that tell against their happiness in other work. The man on the farm has rareV any quarrel with his stomach. His sleep is never disturbed except when he finds it necessary to get up unusually early. The farm offers no temptation to exaggerate, and it teaches dailv the virtue of telling the truth. It is quite impossible on the farm to make things appear other than what they really are!

16 IMPROVEMENT ERA. Besides the good health which the farm gives, it is ODe of the best expounders of true religion, and it promotes faith in the heart of the conscientious man who tills the soil. There is ever present the thought that whatever he may do, God must give the increase. Sometimes a man becomes indifferent, sometimes un- interrupted, harvests diminish the trustful and hopeful reliance in a Providential care. Then a drought ccmes; a hail storm pays him a visit; then he sits down amidst the ruins of his disappoint- ments to reflect upon the uncertainties of life and the necessity of a heartfelt preparation to meet them. But the farm also makes a man a philosopher, provided, of course, he ever reflects. In the articles to follow, I would like to tell my young readers about the philosophy of the farm. They may think a farmer is not much of a philosopher because he does not read all the time. But reading all the time is one of the things which keeps many of our young people from thinking part of the time. If many read less and thought more, they would build up about their lives a philosophical aspect to things. A far- mer's philosophy may not always meet the requirements of a logician; it does something better than that, however, it meets the requirements of his own individual life. The farmer may get a philosophy that is practically good, even if it be not always theoret- ically correct. The philosophy that goes beyond the comprehension of the ordinary man may be the delight of the scholar, but it does not afford any real guide for the working principles of life. Farm life encourages serious and helpful reflections. How I think, and what I think, while at work on the farm, will be, if the editor finds no objection, the subjects of a number of articles entitled, The Thoughts of a Farmer. (to be continued.) Alberta, Canada. REWARDS. I say to you that there are rewards which are unknown to him who seeks only what he regards as the substantial ones. The best of all is the pure joy of ser- vice. To do things that are worth doing, to be in the thick of it, ah that is to ! live.— Secretary Wm. H. Taft.