A good farmer

A good farmer is always one of the most intelligent and best educated men in our society. We have been inclined in our wild industrial development, to forget that agriculture is the base of our whole economy and that in the economic structure of the nation it is always the cornerstone. It has always been so throughout history and it will continue to be so until there are no more men on this earth. We are apt to forget that the man who owns land and cherishes it and works it well is the source of our stability as a nation, not only in the economic but the social sense as well. Few great leaders ever came out of city slums or even suburbs. In every country most of the men who have molded the destinies of the nation have come off the land or from small towns. The great majority of leaders, even in the world of industry and finance, have come from there. I have known all kinds of people, many of them celebrated in many countries, but for companionship, good conversation, intelligence and power of stimulating one's mind there are none I would place above the good farmer.

 -- Louis Bromfield (1896–1956), Pleasant Valley