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208 To actual farmers I wrote in April 1926, as follows, choosing persons, as far as possible, who make their living from farming:19 Now that the discouragements of agriculture are so much stressed, I am asking farmers in various parts of the country whether they really experience joy in farming and to indicate to me, if they will, what is the main satisfaction they find in the farmer’s life. I received reply from 129 persons, sometimes more than one letter, in thirty-three states and four Canadian provinces, fairly indicating the continent from Maine and New Brunswick to California and British Columbia; all the regions at present much distressed are represented, as well as all the New England states. It has been a privilege to read these genuine letters. I have never before had such an interesting lot. I should like to publish many of them as they stand; but that I might have spontaneous expressions I promised that I would not quote any person by name. Some of the letters are expressed in literary skill. All of them go directly to the heart of the question. Practically all the respondents consider the return from farming inadequate; as one of them expresses it, who has a good two hundred-acre farm, “It is necessary for us to pay the old farm about $1000 a year for the honor of helping to grow the nation’s food supply if we live just decently.” Some of the writers, however, attest that they are even now making satisfactory profits, but these men are mostly engaged in growing special or high-class products. None of them asks for government aid, and most of them are afraid of attempts at special legislation for the farmer. The letters do not reflect the discouragements one would One Hundred and Twenty-nine Farmers 19. From The Harvest of the Year to the Tiller of the Soil (New York: Macmillan, 1927), 196–207. “One Hundred and Twenty-nine Farmers” 209 expect, from the current publicity of the situation. But as I did not ask for a discussion of this side of the question, I shall not dwell on it here. I wanted chiefly to know whether the main satisfactions in the farmer’s life were still to be expressed in the sentiments, or whether these old values have been smothered by the current commercial emphasis. I find these old sentiments still strong in these letters and probably better stated than in my youth and in the period of my active work with the farming people. I shall quote a good number of these expressions, being convinced that we need to be reassured by them. The city man might not realize these satisfactions if he were to undertake farming; these joys are the rewards of those who have had long experience in the situations and have matured; none of these farmers would lure to the open country any person who by temperament and training is not adapted to the occupation. To one not born to the situation, many of the satisfactions will seem unusual and perhaps of little moment; yet I know that my farm friends will appreciate such passing remarks as these, each from a different writer: “I breathe pure air and drink water not brought to me in pipes”; “I like to see the stock eat”; “I want to dig in the soil”; “I am never out of work”; “The city is a cage”; “Those people who are not happy unless they can see a movie every night would better stay in town”; “I would not trade my farm home for a city mansion”; “I like to have a job all my own”; “There is marked difference between staying on a farm and living on one”; “What is my ‘main satisfaction’? Why not ask me which child I like best?” In the letters from these 129 farmers, only one considers the money profit to be the main satisfaction in farming and the writer of it now represents a farm organization; but he adds that it is not so much for the profit itself as for the comforts and conveniences the profit enables one to obtain. About a dozen correspondents find conditions now so hard that they are discouraged; some of them are badly in debt and the load is heavy to carry at present. Practically all writers recognize the satisfactions that inhere in the occupation in distinction from the amenities...

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