Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-07-09
!: !: FARMING In THE EMPIRE STATE
RY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
,ndence Star and the Chicago Record Herald.

E. CURTIS.
IT and the Chicago Record-Hera
+, the same movement for larger areas per
| farmer has been general in most OF
| the United States. / am personally &C
quainted with q neighborhood in eastern
Nebraska where the land il rich and high
priced. On one road six miles long there
fifteen. But there are no abandoned
houses Lumber Is so valuable that all
the houses have been removed. In New
York the houses would have been len. be-
cause lumber is cheaper"
Would you advise western farmers 70
| move to New York to take up abandoned
| farms?"
"No. The conditions that led to the
abandonment OF farm by New York
farmer are quite likely to be the undoing
Of q westerner as well. There are many
excellent farms. however with good soil.
| for sale. that appear to ofYer much better
opportunities than are offered by Canadian
lands without improvements We have
land that is producing large crops OF ap-
pies. corn. oats, wheat. alfalfa. potatoes.
cabbage. beans and all other crops that
| excellent buildings. and can be purchased
at about 500 per acre. Nearly as good
| land in less developed region can be
purchased for $50 to $50 There is con-
siderable land for sale at IS to $50 per
| acre: but 1t is adapted to . limited list of
crops Such land usually grows potatoes
| oats. buckwheat. rye and lumber. Much
or 1t should be kept in permanent pas
ture or in woods Tillable land on very
cheap farms is often as expensive as on
| the good farms. as there is sometimes so
! much land that is not tillable. In general
1t fs well for any newcomer to locate
where the farmers are prosperous rather
than where they are not doing well. New
york has some Of the most prosperous of
all agricultural communities. The chief
reason that farms are for sale in such re-
gions is that they are held by old men,
VINO wish to retire.
What effect have the good roads. troll
leys. telephones, etc, on the improvement
Of farming conditioner"
THE telephone and rural free delivery
have had very great effect. In Tomp-
kins county. which is
Modern about an average Of New
Helps. f .urR. - per per cent .a'. o. .ns
and practically all have rural free de-
livery. AS to good roads they affect only q
small proportion. The value Of stone roads
| to farmers, as whole. has been great
ly overestimated in the newspapers. be-
| cause so few farmers can ever live on
the stone roads. These roads are chiefly
automobile roads, connecting cities with
cities. To build such roads connecting
all the farms with towns would cost more
| than all the farm land in the state 10
| worth. Farmers as a whole are more
In need Of good dirt roads connecting
farms with towns than they are OF stone
| automobile roads connecting cities with
citiea''
Are the farmers in the east getting
| rich?"
Not so rapidly as to take their breath
away. Some are doing very we'll how
ever, but the average make about the
| same income as farmers In the west-that
| Is, not much more than interest on their
| capital and farm wages.
THE College OF Agriculture has OBJ
| tanned records of a year 8 business on the
| farms in eleven townships in two very
distinct regions. Half OF the farmers
! would be as well or II they lent their
out at regular farm wages. The De-
partment of Agriculture has just publish
| ed circular giving the results Of a
years business on 266 farms in four
townships in New Hampshire. Less than
half of these men made as much as they
| would have done il they had lent their
| money at 3 per cent and hired out as
| farm hands. They averaged a little over
dollar day for their time. besides
having a home to live in and making in
| terest on their capital.
MANY farmers have $4,000 invested in
their business. This amount of money
would bring $1,000 year
Farmers II placed at interest. II
Cani+a1 farmer with that
amount of capital re-
| ceives 81 800 year above his farm ex-
penses he has received only $500 profit
for his years work. Yet he might live
quite well on that income and perhaps
| have cheap automobile But this would
not be because farming pays so we'll. 1t
| would be because the farmer has SO much
capital He could have done as well if he
had lent his money and hired out as o
section hand on a railroad. Farmers, as
class. are not getting rich, in spite of
| the rosy pictures of the real estate deaI-
are doing very we'll and it is now possible
for an energetic man who has q good
knowledge Of farming to make a good
living on a farm.
Should not the cities and the farmers
cooperate to get the unemployed persons
to move to farms to help solve the farm
labor problem?"
Such efforts have always failed and
must always fail The city must take
care of it's own paupers. They are OF no
use on farms They do not know how to
do farm work, nor are they often willing
to work on farms. Few men who have
worked in cities ever make good farm
hands. The kind that are of any use on
farms are not likely to be unemployed IN
cities. The cities can use unskilled labor.
but 1t Is becoming increasingly dific;lt to
use unskilled labor on farms. This Is one
reason why foreign immigrants drift to
cities more than formerly. Cities have
many enterprises where unskilled labor
can be used in droves. But farm work is
mostly individual and now requires very
much skill. Even the milking of cows
requires a better type of man. now that
the sanitary regulations are becoming Sc
strict.
1T takes a very different type Of man
to run grain binder from the type that
was useful with q grain cradle. A pota-
man, but there was not much danger of
such a man hurting a hand-potato hook.
A good hired man on a farm should be
able to run a mower. hay loader. sulky
or gang pillow. harvester, corn binder, etc.
1t Is very easy for an unskilled man to
injufe these machines more than his
wages amount to.
1.-The only solution Of the farm labor
problem" said Prof. Warren, lis to keep
enough boys on the farms to do the
work That is the great source OF
our supply Of farmers. Wherever
farming pays we'll enough such boys
will remain on the farms Somewhat bet
ter conditions have greatly checked the
city movement during the past five years.
This is strikingly seen in the agricultural
colleges. Formerly nearly all the gradu-
ates planned to teach or go into govern
ment work. Now the majority plan to
farm.
Island be a good thing in directing immi-
grants to farms?'
yes Such a bureau could direct some
men 10 FARMS particularly to eastern