Profit-Sinking My acquaintance was not a man for saying anything
but his honest opinion. He had farmed for a long time when things were not so good, and now, when they were not so bad—with a margin for improve- ment—he was convinced that farmers were being misjudged because of a minority who were not fit to be at it. Too many " outsiders " came in to " sink a profit." The sinking of a profit was a most unhealthy thing. It put up the cost of farms and livestock and created a bad impression among ignorant townsfolk who couldn't tell sheep from goats. Everyone knows there are people who farm as a sideline, but to me the man who isn't interested in the economics of farming shouldn't be in agriculture at all. It was the man's attitude to the townsman that impressed me. The division that exists between town and country is real. The years do not improve it and, unless some effort is mati to reconcile the ends and needs of both sections, time will make them less tolerant, and .they will grow as far apart as the industrial worker and the peasant in France.
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