FARM AND DAIRY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 328, 2 March 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY.

I The following is trom 'The Fat oi | the Land":—''When an able-bodied ni:»i I has forty acres of ground under his j feet, it is up to him whether he will to i a comfortable, independent, self-respeet-ing man or not. The aay of isolation and seclusion has passed and the farmer is a personal factor in the market. He is learning the advantages of co-opera-tion, both in producing and disposing of his wares; lie is a power in politics, and by i'ar t'he most dependable element lin the State. Like the wrestler of old, ■ who gained, new strength whenever his foot touched the ground, our country ' gains fresh' vigor from every man wno I takes the soil. "Let no one dread country life for t the young, until tney come to the full ' pith and stature of maturity; for their i chances of doing things worth doing in the world are four to one against ' those of children who are city-bred. I This is probably due to pure air and I sunshine, making redder blood and more vigorous development; to broader hori- • zons and freedom from abnormal conj yentions. Ohoose the country for your j foster-mother; go to her for consolation and rejuvenation; take her bounty gratefully, and be content with the tat of. the land. If we can only get the headed for the land it will do much towards solving the vexatious labor problems, and will draw the teeth of the communists and the anarchists* for no one is willing to divide as hp who cannot lose by division. To the man who has a plot of ground which he calls his own, division doesn't appeal ' with any but negative force. . . . "At forty, a man is a fool, or a farmer, or both; at fifty, fbe pull of the land is mighty; at sixty it has fuil 'possession of him; at seventy it draws him down with other forces than that which Newton discovered; and fit eighty it opens for him and kindly tucks the sod around him. Mother Earth is no step-mother, but warm and | generous to all; and I think a fellow [ is lucky who conies to her for long !• years of bounty before he is compelled I-to seek fier final hospitality. It s only ! farmer who is a wealt'h-produijei, | and it's high time that he should he recognised as such. He's the husbandman of all life; without him the world would be depopulated in three years; ! No other following gives such opportunity for independence and self-re-liance. |