Each stage in the progress of the conquest of nature to meet human wants, from the gathering of wild fruits, through hunting and fishing, domestication of animals, herding, and tillage of permanent fields, to the manufacture of universal comforts and tools, and to general commerce, has made more important the welfare of neighbors. Even the wars of our century are waged in the name of and for the sake of humanity. The study of individual welfare involves the public welfare. Welfare of a class is dependent upon the welfare of all classes. Wealth of individuals is genuine wealth in connection only with the wealth of the world. Welfare without wealth would imply the annihilation of space, of time, and of all forces acting in opposition to wishes. _Wealth in farming._—The subject of the following pages is wealth, how it is accumulated, how distributed to individual control and how finally consumed for the welfare of all concerned. But special reference is made to the sources of wealth as a means of welfare in rural life, and to the bearing of definite economic principles upon farming, especially in these United States of America. Farming is, and must always remain, a chief factor in both wealth and welfare, and its relations to the industry of the world grow more important to every farmer as the world comes nearer to him. We cannot now live in such isolation as our fathers loved. The markets of the world and the methods of other farmers all over the world affect the daily life of every tiller of the soil today. Commerce in the products of farm and household reaches every interest, when the ordinary mail sack goes round the world in less time than it took our immediate ancestors to go as pioneers from Massachusetts to Ohio. It seems possible to show from the experiences of farm life the essential principles of wealth-making and wealth-handling, including the tendencies under a world-wide commerce. These every farmer and laborer needs for his business, for his home, and for his country. Nature Of Wealth