The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1909-04-09

~
~ ~ class of agriculturists, but there is
perhaps in it an attempt to teach a
t lesson of cheerfuhess even under ad.
verse circumstances that is of just as
\ much service on the farm as it is in
the city. 1t was said by a Washing
"A ton official recently who heard Of this
n letter, that there are more discour.
@ aged ones in the cities, three times
over, than there are on farms.
From central Illinois came a letter
. which touched on the subject Of the
ownership OF farms: In part 1t Is
EM@-- as follows:
NhM~- Il wish to add this to my answer
%MA~ to the question: What in your judg
Y3&GA --%~- ment is the most important single
Y4HNr.8Ne- thing to be done for the general bet
1Wa%%HNAM&@=-- terment of country life? To institute
a propaganda whose purpose shall be
91EeSHHM$HHEW~ to preserve American farms for Amer
lean farmers, l. e., that the farmer
W. who tiMs the farm should own 1t. !
II ;. . !: !; +: !; {; E; !; !; !: !: !: !: !: !: Z: :; !; :; !; :: :: !: !: 8: :; =: :: :: :: : !: !: T: :: !: !: :: !: !: !: !: :
~ WM ton OF the farmers whom / meet and
~ nm among whom l mingle. with that Of
IT, boy, l find there has been marked and sub
q: :. ;. ;. ! i j ! !. !: J: i: ]: ! !: !: ! I: ]: &: T: !: !. !: !: !" J !: ] !: ! !: ! ! ! {. :. ] ]. ]. ] i. !: !. ] j: i. !: ! a. /: /: I: /. !: /. ! !"
stantlal Improvement in almost all things per
~T~> tanning to farm life, except two. 1 find that
AHYy while the farmer has better live stock, better
WMWII tools, better vehicles. better buildings, better
.MWW% conveniences in and around the home, better
MMWZW/ clothes and better schools for his children,
NXML yet more than so per cent. of the farmers do
INN not own the farms upon which they live, and that the
NJ land Of the average farm does not produce mere
w. than one-half as much as it once did. 1 believe
M%' that these two things are in a large measure interde
pendent upon each other as cause and effect, the
( loss OF fertility often being the cause of the farm
mortgage which finally takes the farm from it's original owner
and transfers it to a landlord who in many cases vies with his
tenant in taking much from the farm and putting little back
upon it. If the number of rented farms in the future in.
creases in the same ratio as in the past, within rs years Is
of every 100 farms will have passed out of the ownership OF
the farmers, in the majority of cases never to return to them. !
consider this change from farm ownership to farm tenantry the
greatest danger, not only to the farm and the farmer but the
greatest danger to the nation as WELL"
Another Illinois man, not a farmer, but a teacher of agricul
ture, says: 81 have made something of a study of the manner
of living on the farm. 1 have taken pictures of the best and
poorest houses in the county. 1 think the solving of the prob
lem will depend more upon help given the farmers wife and
children. than the farmer. Farmers owning hundreds # acre%
and having yearly incomes of thousands live in mere huts, no
bath, no hot or cold water in the house and no furnace to
heat the house. This farmer always has big, well painted barns
and pure bred stock.
This lack of conveniences means that the wife must carry
her water from the well and must carry out her sop water.
If she takes a bath it must be in some small vessel. Usually
her husband would let $500 worth of machinery rust in the
field and accuse her of extravaganza if she asked to have water
ba hetter arranged and have conveniences orn.montaI shruhs
around the house would not require care and would add to the
beauty of the place. Barns could be located behind the house
just as easily as they are now located in front.
Educate the farmer boys to take advantage of modern i'm.
provements. Teach them agriculture in their high schools,
normal schools. and in all secondary schools 7 have visited the
homes of many boys who have graduated from the state agri-
cultural college. l find that they have gas engines to pump
water and do the heavy work. They have improved the looks OF
their home by landscape gardening. Have water in the house
and drains to carry it away. All this means comfort to all the
household"
Another draws a picture in part of farm life in the section
of the Alabama country where he lives.
"The farmer in this territory has to be up and going by four
O'Clock a. m, and his employees a little earlier. Drudgery or
chore work comes first. and then the field or other regular farm
work until II: As, then 80 and in some cases As minutes for din
uSI LII IuC OdCh sol unCA u0I n, OAOIS AOI WOIA ACA SuP Il
per about seven p. m, then rest, provided there is no urgent
work such as saving of hay from threatening rain, attending to
injured or harnessgalled stock. repairing broken fences and
numerous other incidentals of the work.
"This is repeated day in and day out throughout the crop
season, which with all it's different branches, extends from about
the first of March to the latter part Of October, and Sundays
are taken up with walking over the farms and doing small re-
pair jobs to fences, removing distractions from drainage dtches,
gathering in stray stock, repairing harness. ct cetera, and plan
ming the work for the following week.
I'm my opinion the greatest thing that any government has
done for the relief of the farmer that benefits all classes of farm
workers is the establishment Of the rural mail service. a very
industrious man can now keep fairly up with the news Of the
outside world whereas the neighborhood gossip gathered greediy
from some less busy neighbor is all We ever heard before"
It is of course perfectly impossible to give any adequate idea
of the hundreds of thousands of answers that were made to the
questions put by the commission. The farmers diner greatly
in their views of things, but from the report OF the commission
can best be gained, with the added aid of President Roosevelts
message, an idea Of the opinion which the able men who studied
the answers formed as a result of the shifting OF the
answers. |
In this connection it may be out of place to give an extract
from the views expressed by the faculty of the Purdue Qnd)
School of Agriculture and of the stan OF the experiment station.
AS to the chief need of the farmers OF Indiana and the
means of meeting it, the official writing for the faculty has
much to say. Among other things he says: We believe the
fundamental need Of the farmers Of Indiana is a thoroughly
general, scientific and technical education which will enable the
rank and file Of the farmers through both individual and CO
operative effort, to secure financial returns from their farms
while fully maintaining the fertility of the soil"