The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1906-03-15
BROoKINGs COUNTY FARMERS
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Continued from fist page
But / hear some one say, "Why
have you been soliciting $l.00 from
every one p%urporting it to be Tor the
expenses of this institute?' L VIII ex'
PLAIN this matter to you. When the
Commercial Club first brought up this
matter Tor discussion this question
came up, "Where is the money
coming from to pay speakers, hall
rent, prizes, advertising and all other
expenses connected with an affair OF
this kind or who is going to stand
good for these expenses until the
board of supervisors meet?" 1t seemed
very proper to us that $3.50 be raised
before this meeting and at this meet
ing by giving memberships in return
for the $1.00 each advanced, which
would give us a permanent fund,
out of which we can each year use
enough to pay expenses as we go
and be reimbursed for said expenses
out OF the county fund, thus always
having this permanent fund on hand.
We cannot at present, see how far
reaching the possible results of these
associations may be. W. do know
that the fruit business of California is
prosperous only through the work and
effort of the fruit growers associations
and even now their very existence is
threatened through the private owner
ship OF refrigerator cars with their
enormous icing charges, and enorm-
express charges.
One farmer said, whom we asked to
contribute a dollar to this work, "You
will not get it, your professors and
college men can't tell me anything
about farming. l don't want to raise
more stuff for | raise enough stuff
now, but tell me how to get more for
the produce we raise and then / will
become a member of your institute"
Well l confess l must agree in a
measure with this For with our
improved machinery, m man now
can do the work that four men could
forty years ago, and further than this,
this one man is working just as many
hours every day rs the man did forty
years ago, hence the farmer of today
is producing four times as much as he
did forty years ago. What is the re-
sult2 Wheat gets down to forty cents
per bushel, and the farmer would have
to work t~hirty-six hours every day and
compel his hired man to get up ten
hours before sun rise to make a living
to say nothing about paying tor his
farm. 1t has been said by men who
have made the subject a study, the
world could live in comfort if every
able-bodied man labored three hours
each day.
The trouble seems to be that the
farmer, like every body else, is chasing
the almighty dollar. He wants to
"get-riCh-quick," SO he can move in
TO town and live without work like
the merchants and bankers. (D
The building of a farm home for
themselves and their children and
their children's children has become
almost a thing of the past. The farm
er today says, 81 will not buy and set
out trees. | will not build my house
s. it will endure for hundreds of years.
| will not go into fine stock and make
a lasting name for my farm. For the
way things seem to be going | will be
doing all this for strangers and what
is the use?
II send my boys and girls to our
agricultural college and l cannot x
pect them to be different from other
boys and girls, with the result that
after graduation my girls marry a
doctor, a lawyer, a merchant, or some
other professional man and my boys
get just as far away from the farm as
possible and become clerks, book
keepers, telegraphers, civil engineers,
preachers and politicians. If you do
not believe what | say, just ask a
group Of twenty graduating boys who
are attending our agricultural college
what line of work do they intend to
take up after graduating. Not one
will answer that they are going to be
a farmer. Chasing the almighty
dollar is chasing the boy away from
the farm"
Make the farm home and plan your
farming operations SO the boy will see
pleasure in his work instead of eternal
drudgery. and so that he is working
for ideals instead of dollars. Educate
him so that he will see that the sue
cessful farmer with his beautiful
home, his we'll titled acres, his fine
blOoded stock, his nice driving team,
which he loves as he does his girl or
boy, is in far better shape to secure
happiness in life than the banker who
has nothing beautiful but what he
buys with his money, the merchant
whose fine home is paid for with
money made by worry, hard work,
and eternal association with mani
mate and musty, dusty, merchandise,
and the professional man, who works
even harder than the farmer if he
succeeds at his profession. Right
here is where our farmers institute
work is going TO count and how to
make the farm home attractive should
be discussed at every institute in the
land.
The institute should teach the farm
er how to raise the greater share of the
living of his family, how to conduct
a profitable garden, how best to mar
ket the spare products of the farm. 1t
should also teach the farmers wife
how she may best do her part in max
ing her farm home attractive and how
best to employ her time so she may
be able to do her work-care for her
family; and how to find time for re-
creation and social duties.
The institute should teach that small
farms are conducive to better farming,
better neighbors, neighbors, and
49,. f~sIsaa 60. onosaI nrtuIInn0s