The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1908-10-15
FUTURE OF FARMING.

An investigator of conditions in the New Eng
land States has given utterance to the oplnuoh
that "the present-day farm controlled by one man,
must go. The farm OF tomorrow Will be 1arlll
of great size, owned by corporation and conduct
ed along lines that have made our great mercantile
enterprises successful. He thus predicts the pass
ing of the Independent farmer-an important Iac'
tor in America.
Concerning this theory the Journal of Agrcul-
ture, st. Louis pertinently says:
1.-THE situation in the New England States may
justify a conclusion such that reached by the
expert we have quoted. If it does, the fact is TO
be regretted. AS for the balance of the country
the tendency seems to be toward anything rather
than corporately managed farms. The Texas news
papers are incomplete nowadays without an an
nouncement of the passing of some great ranch
The owners of these ranches are finding the land
more valuable for farming than for grazing pur-
poses and are selling it, largely to immigrants in
blocks to suit their pocketbooks. Recently a
ranch that covered practically all OF three coun-
ties was sold to syndicate which is interested in
colonizing the district The land is being cot into
160-acre tracts and less and is reported 10 be
meeting with ready sale at profitable prices.
Conditions are similar in other parts of the
country. Today, in the older farm sections OF the
Middle West where land is selling at ten times
it's value of lifetime ago. none but compare
lively welto-do man is able to purchase $50 acres.
In the newly irrigated districts of the West and
Northwest the country is being opened to agrl-
culture and horticulture for what few years
ago would have been considered very small scale
cultivation The necessity for irrigation decreases
the amount of land for which one family is able
to care. Very large farms are out of the question,
and it is well that they In the cities through
out the central part Of the country, young men are
very generally becoming interested in farming
couple of generations of family life under city
conditions have awakened the younger generation
to the necessity for out-Of-door njOyment. In the
irrigated districts will be found hundreds of these
young who have turned from city salary work
to the greater freedom of the farm. They are
buying five or tenacre tracts in some sections and
obtaining more profitable returns their invest
ment through crops of fruits and vegetab es than
is earned by any of the older and larger farms
in the older agricultural districts.
when irrigation is generally employed in farm
ing everywhere it seems to be likely in the
not far distant future, the same conditions that
prevail in the West will govern the
farmer generally. There will be less opportunity
for extensive farming because the cost of land
will be materially greater and the amount OF neces-
sary work will limit the activities OF the individ-
ual. 1t may be necessary to the development OF
New England farming, as the investigator has
said to do the work large scale through cor
poratons but as for farming in general through
out the country the tendency is toward the smaller
rather than the larger plan-toward individual
instead of corporation development"
1t is certain that the recent panic has shown
that no other class of people has withstood it's
this fact is accentuating the movement of home
seekers to the Pacific Northwest, where they may
get "back to the farm by means of the opportu-
mites offered to get one of its small ranches.