Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-11-22
Back to the Farm.

wonderful results achieved by the city
man or woman who shall 90 back to the
farm. Much of this is pure fiction, as
some of the city dwellers have proved to
their sorrow. The city man or woman
city born and bred and used for half q
lifetime to city ways and with no work
ing knowledge Of agriculture, cannot, as
1t is so often told him that he can, 60
out into the country and live free and
easy life on farm. Farming is a busi-
ness and must be learned. The middle
aged farmer cannot 60 into shop or
store or manufacturing plant and con-
duct it successfully. Many have tried
this and lost the hard-earned savings Of
the early half Of life. The city man
with no agricultural knowledge must
have either period of working under
supervision on a farm or else means
enough to hire q capable man for at
least year to give him the needed les
sons In agriculture. 1t cannot all bs
learned from books. A good part of it
must come by doing the thing to be
done.
An mex perienced man may put his
little all into farm and lose it as easily
as the farmer may lose bis by trying
some unlearned business; but there are
in every city men and women who were
brought up on farms. To them the
knowledge of agriculture is not all as
some new language. The lessons OF
their early years come to mind readily,
and they have working knowledge
with which to start. Memory warns
them that on the farm one does not
gather grapes from thorns or figs from
thistles, and that what one sows that
be also resps. They know that by the
sweat of their brows they must earn
their bread, yet the owning of home
and being ones own boss, the fresh air,
pure water, good food and room to be
natural in mean much, and they return
to the farm and love it and reap q sub
stantial reward from 1t. The young
man or woman may learn this as easily
as any other business, requiring only
moderate capital, and the middle-aged
may learn OF others much, enough to
make the farm q feasible proposition
if they are capable of adaptation.
New York and New England farms
have been discovered of late to be
adapted, under proper cultivation, for
raising bountiful harvests of all kinds.
Much of the soil that has seemed to be
very poor is found to be valuable when
properly fed and cultivated. Many
times the cause of its poverty was sim
ply successive cropping without rota-
ton, until the available plant.food was
The movement to people
these seemingly worn-out farms with
men who wish to make permanent
homes in the country has resulted in in
creased prosperity in many localities.
The stream of emigration to the west
has grown smaller year by year, until 1t
has practically ceased. The northwest
paints alluring pictures that call the
young men there, but for each one who
goes there is some one to take his place
at home. Many of our worn out farms
have been found to be peculiarly we'll
adapted to fruit growing, and it has
been demonstrated that "a tine-looking
fruit as any in the world can be grown
in New York and New England and of
flavor not to be equaled in milder cli-
mates.
Some means must be devised by which
to relieve the congestion Of the consum-
ing city population and to increase the
producing country population, or the
time is not far distant when this country
will not produce her own food stuffs.
Exports have steadily fallen off. This
year this country exported not half the
value of breadstuffs that it did five years
ago, and food values are constantly ris-
ing. We have land enough and to spare
TO feed all our people and many more,
but it needs to be divided into small
farms and intensively titled. This would
an increased farming popu-
lation and would, if brought about with
in a reasonable time, lower the exorbi-
tant price of many articles of food. 1t
has been said by good authority on
agricultural matters that foodstuts
enough to feed New York City for ten
years might be produced in one year
within a radius of one hundred miles OF
that city. Germany, with. small farms,
has a prosperous farming class and an
enormous production, and her land is
producing more and more year after
year.
The Bureau of immigration is doing
what il can to settle persons on the farm
ing lands rather than in the cities. The
Cltef Oh Tue ulViSiOu VI iuAot mohoo
saws that the division has settled per
on farms 5000 persons. 1t
has furnished information regarding
farm employment and conditions to TO-
600 persons. The people settled on the
farms are writing to their friends in
the cities of their prosperity, and this
is an influence to bring more and more
into the country. The land departments
of many of the railroads send ont ex.
hibitions along agricultural lines and
maintain lecturers on up-to-date farm
ing, and these are adding much to the
efficiency OF farm work in their locali.
ties. All over the country schools and
experiment farms are being established
wherein one may learn farming as he
would medicine or surgery. The city man
without other agricultural knowledge
should avail himself of some of these.
In most of them a man may work his
way. In this manner he may gain the
ranks of the producers Of the country
with a fair assurance of success and a
that the wolf will never howl
at his door.-H. Leigh Hunt in Country
G Gentleman.