A man who had been tied in a great city all his life made his first
visit the other day to an up-to-date farm. He was so surprised at what
he saw that he wrote a letter describing his emotions. Some of it is
worth quoting because it shows a picture of the modern farm as it was
cast upon the eye of a man who had never seen it before.
“I was whisked from the railway station in a big touring car, through
beautiful country. Then we turned up a flower and shrub lined concrete
driveway, and stopped by a home, capacious and modern. Inside I found
electric lights, electric iron and bathroom with running water.
[Illustration: THE WOMAN ON THE FARM AT LAST ENJOYING THE BENEFIT OF
LABOR-SAVING MACHINES
This small mounted kerosene engine runs the washing machine, pump, cream
separator and churn. It is easily drawn about from place to place by
hand where its energy is needed to lighten the housework.]
“I found that the good man of the house had his own electric light and
water plant, run by kerosene engines, that his cows were milked
automatically, that he pulled his plows, harrows, drills, manure
spreader and binder with a kerosene tractor, that his hired men went
about the farm doing everything as they rode on some machine, that he
went to church and town in an automobile, and that he delivered the
products of his farm to market with a motor truck. Everything was
managed like a factory. Things went forward with order and with
assurance. Everyone was busy and happy.”
This is an optimistic picture of one of our best farms, but compare it
with the best that could be found only a few hundred years ago. The
best farmer of those days held all the land for miles around and lived
in a castle in the middle of it. The castle was dark and cold and was
made of rough stones fitted together. The poor farmers were serfs and
came two or three days out of a week to their master’s house to work.
Those were the great days of their lives, for then they ate of the
master’s food.
Food--that was the problem of those long tired years which dragged
through the ages, when nearly everyone was a farmer, and a farmer with
crude tools held in his hands. Time was when practically the whole world
went to bed hungry and rose again in the morning craving food, just as
half the millions of India do today because they do with their hands
what a machine should do.
[Illustration: THE MOTOR TRUCK MAY BE USED BY THE FARMER EVEN IN HILLY
AND MOUNTAINOUS PLACES