The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1892-11-28
THE FARMERS OF THE FUTURE.


tury upon the homesteads in blue grass
land, Kentucky, with very few modif-
cations could be cut to fit almost any
other portion of the United States.
This writer says, in answer to question
as to the future of that region One
seems to see in certain tendencies of
American life the probable answer to
this question. The small farmer will be
bought out and will disappear. Estates
will be fewer and larger. The land will
pass into the hands of the rich, being
too precious for the poor to own" I'm
portant changes in the conditions of
land tenure and the farming industry
have been creeping upon us almost una
wares for years in various and widely
separated portions of the country.
What is said to be true of Kentucky is
truth that has been frequently recog
nized and discussed in these columns in
connection with the farming interests of
certain portions OF Oregon,
The old-fashioned farmer, with his
thrift, his generous shrewdness, his in
innate acquaintance with the responsive
6CCISJS vi HdluIc, Ills WHOl0SOm6 COnU0nG
and his sturdy family OF helpful sons
and daughters, expecting to maintain
his stake in the soil when he should
leave it, has very few successors today.
1t looks as though, here too, the small
farmer would be bought out and disap-
pear, and as if estates would grow fewer
and larger. The movement in this di-
rection has not merely begun, but has
attained considerable proportions al
ready. 1t is better to recognize this
transition and prepare for it, than to
waste our time in unavailing regrets for
a past that cannot come again, because
the conditions under which it flourished
do not now exist.
Hardly any single cause is sufficient to
account for the altered status of the
small farmer. 1t cannot be charged to
the deficiency of the tillers of the soil,
because mems minds are more acute
than ever; education is more widely
diffused; there is more impatience of
the old conservatism, and more eager
ness to keep in touch with advanced
ideas. But it is quite probable that
these very facts have worked against the
prosperity OF the old system of farming
What is called liberal education is more
general, and by it tastes are developed
and aspirations stimulated which can
not be satisfied within the narrow limits
of the farm. Society has become more
gregarious within the last quarter of a
century. 1t longs for closer contact
with the great movements of the world
than can be had upon the farm. 1t
seeks for richer and more exciting asso-
Citations than rural seclusion affords.
Luxury is more necessary to it than
formerly, and in thickly settled commu-
munities it can at least see it if it cannot
more intimately enjoy it.
But more potent reason than that
mentioned is the fact that modern agri-
cultural methods put the American
farmer at very serious competitive dis
advantage. The great farming opera
tions of the country are largely con-
Quoted by machinery, and machinery
costs money and presupposes business
on a large scale. The hundred-acre
farm does not give it opportunity to pay
for first cost and maintenance, while the
man who tries to do without it, is work.
ing against as great odds as the shoe
maker at his bench who tries to compete
with modern factory. Many men,
even now, make independent livlihoods
upon limited acres with perhaps little
over, but the business ability and push
that will accom- plish that in a farm will
achieve larger results in other pursuits.
The logic of events, therefore, seem to
point to larger farms and the investment
of more capital in their cultivation.
The small farmers will be the agents and
stewards of the new dispensation, and
their experience and labor will receive
larger rewards in those capacities than
they are now receiving in their struggles
as proprietors, while the land will in
crease in value and productiveness.
This may not be an ideal solution of
the problem of land distribution, but it
is a solution that would much improve
the present condition of the agricultural
communities, and seems the only practi-
cal one under the present circumstances.
1t would certainly make the hills and
valleys of our Inland Empire more
beautiful and productive than before.
Then, with tariff system that would
allow to some of us the leading manu-
factories, this section would attain de-
gree of prosperity that would stand the
closest inspection and be proof against
the most adverse criticism.
Lost or stolen.