The Delta independent., 1909-03-12
Mr.. PinChOt'S Intimate
knowledge of and Interest
In the Farmers Life
A Letter Which May Be Read With Added
Interest Pending the Visit Of the
Chief Forester to Delta.

agriculture of state and Nation met
this situation? Largely by the asser
tion, in word or in act, that there is
only one thing to be done for the
farmer. So far as his personal educa
tion is concerned they have tried to
give him sound body, trained mind,
and wise and valiant spirit. But SO
far as his calling is concerned they
have stopped with the body. They
have said in effect: We will help the
farmer to grow better crops, but we
will take no thought of how he can get
the best returns for the crops he
grows, or of how he can utilize those
returns SO as to make them yield him
the best and happiest life.
1t is not wise to stop the education
of a boy or girl with the body, and
to neglect the mind and the spirit.
But we have done the equivalent of
that in dealing with farm life. We
have done more. we have done it more
effectively, for the farmer along the
line of better crops than any other
nation. But we have done little, and
far less than many other rations, for
better business and better living on the
farm. Hereafter We shall need not
only the work of departments of agri-
culture in state and nation, such as we
nave now, but We shall need to have
added to their functions such duties as
will make them departments of rural
business and rural hfe as well. Our
depari ments of agriculture should COW
er the whole field of the farmers life
1t is not enough to touch onl, one the
three great country problems, even
though that is the first in time and in
Importance.
OF course, we all realize that the
growing of crops is the great founda-
ton on which the well-being not only
of the farmer but of the whole Nation
must depend. First of all we must
have food. But after that has been
achieved, is there nothing more to be
done? 1t seems to me clear that farm
ers have as much to gain from good
organization as merchants, plumbers,
carpenters, or any of the other trades
and business of the United States.
After we have secured better crops,
the next logical and inevitable step is
to secure better business organization
on the farm SO that each farmer shall
get from what he grows the best possi-
Bile returns.
Consider what has been accomplished
in Ireland through agricultural cooper
alton. The Irish have discovered that
it is not good for the farmer to work
alone. Since 1894 they have been or
ganizing agricultural societies to give
the farmer chance to sell at the right
time and at the right price. The re-
suit is impressive. In Ireland there
are 35s creameries producing about
half the butter exported. There are
40, 0OO farmers in the societies for CO.
operative selling. which, as we know,
in this country, means better prices.
There are 26l agricultural credit socie-
ties with a membership of $1,000, and
capital of more than $500, 900. There
are other agricultural societies with
LU,V tIclbOCIc. Al WoIu, III lTeldIu.
which we have been apt to consider as
far behind US in all that relates to ag-
riculture, there are 925 agricultural
societies with an annual business of
e5O, 900, 900. Since 1894 their total bus
mess was more than $500, Ooo. 900.
But after the farmer has begun to
make use Of his right to combine for
his advantage in selling his products
and buying his supplies, is there moth
ing else he can do? As well might we
say, that after the body and the mind
Of boy have been trained, he should
be deprived of all those associations
with his fellows which make life worth
living, and to which every child has an
inborn right. Life is something more
than a matter of business. No man
can make his life what it ought to be
by living !. merely on business basis.
There are things higher than business.
What is the reason for the enormous
movement from the farms into the
cities? Not simply that the business
advantages in the city are better, but
that the city has more conveniences,
more excitement, and more facilities
for contact with friends and neigh
bors-in a word. more life. There
ought then to be attractiveness in
country life such as will make the
country boy or girl want to live and
work in the country, such that the
farmer will understand that there is no
more dignified calling than his own,
none that makes life better worth liv-
ing. The social or community life of
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