Products
To enumerate what workers in the numerous agricultural occupations produce in their varied general farming operations, with rotation of crops, varying in different sections, to enumerate the meat products derived from properly handled live stock, the minor crops of garden, orchard, truck, and berry patches, and the various specialties of horticulture, poultry, and bees, not to mention “specialty farming” products, would fill a book. In fact, the reports and statistical data on agricultural products and their importance to the sustenance and clothing of the population, as well as to industry, fill many books annually. To enumerate these products would be but to remind you of the foods on your tables, of every article of clothing which you wear, and of many raw materials of the world’s industries.
Work for All
General farming provides work for those of all ages, from the youngest children with their “chores,” up through every member of the family to the farmer himself, who must be general manager for directing his own labor and that of all who are associated with him. There is work for the weak as well as the strong, for the disabled as well as for the fit.
Out of Doors
The year around, considering all occupations in agriculture, probably 75 to 90 per cent of the work even in winter is out-of-door work. Very little is done in shops or factories; more is done in dairy buildings and in cheese and butter making factories; there is some indoor work in animal feeding, minor manufacturing, blacksmithing, and making farm repairs, and probably more indoor work might advantageously be undertaken. More shop and repair work, such as is now taken to the town, might be done on the farm. But agricultural work is and must always be largely outdoor work, and it is on that account particularly healthful and enjoyable.
North and South, East and West
Agriculture in some form is coextensive with the area of the United States. There are the crops suitable for and produced in the North and the South, the East and the West, varying according to the length and warmth of the seasons of growth, and as influenced by soil, climate, rainfall, and adaptability to different plants and operations.
Agriculture a Machine Industry
Inventive genius has given us a tool, an implement, or a machine for every purpose in the new agriculture of to-day. America produced nearly 35,000 farm tractors in 1916, 62,742, in 1917, and 58,543 in the first half of 1918, a total of 150,955 in 30 months, yet the demand for them is so great that the Department of Agriculture is seeking a plan for equitably distributing them throughout the States. Better and greater crops are produced by modern methods, and production per man has been greatly increased. This introduction of implements and machinery has made it possible for disabled men to take up many lines of farming with every prospect of success.