The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-07-22


- the Natinecock NeishborhoOd
A@ association of Locust Valley,
N. Y, as the result Of fifteen
months work under the auspices of
the Presbyterian department Of church
and country life, is convinced that 1t
is the duty of the church to encourage
scientific farming. He deals with the
question In a recent article In the Sur
vey, entitled Farmer Smith and the
Country Church." in which he says:
Farmer Smith needs help He needs
1t here and now. He is trying to keep
his family supplied with food and
clothes. He is struggling to give his
children an education and at the same
time to pay off the mortgage on the
farm and to save enough to keep his
wife and himself from want in their
old age All around him are those
who are waging the same battle, but
they give him little help. Each one
fights alone. as his father did before
him.
Rise In Land Values.
Twelve years ago Farmer Smith had
a $1,000 farm. 1t yielded him an in
come Of about $500. That was q re-
turn of 10 per cent Today, because
of the general rise in land values, that
farm is worth $4,000 It yields him
about $7OO. 1t is now only per cent
investment His profits have decreas-
ed Moreover, his land is poorer than
1t was twelve years ago. Smith never
learned how to farm intensively. He
knows only the crude methods used
by his father in the days of virgin soil.
The years ahead give him no promise
that he will be able to make even as
much from his farm as he Is making
now.
1.-THE economic pinch has left it's
marks upon his social life. Many OF
his old neighbors have sold their farms
and moved away. Some have left their
farms in the hands Of tenants, who are
robbing the land Of its fertility. Com
munity spirit has vanished. The OLD
forms Of recreation have lapsed with
the passing of the settled population.
No new forms have taken their place
except in the towns, and these are
usually Of a character that would noE
be tolerated in the country.
Farm Life Drudgery.
Smiths boy is awaiting his first op-
portunity to get off the farm His has
been a life of all work and no play,
and. while 1t has not exactly made him
| a dull boy. it has made him hate farm
| ing. Smiths wife is leading the life
| Of a drudge, and she swears her daugh'
tiers are not going to live on the farm
If she can help 1t. With the stagna
ton in social life has come stagnation
in moral and religious life, for morale
do not flourish in a stagnant commu
nifty.
Smith needs help; he needs to know
how to farm more scientifically; he
needs a better income; he needs tt
know how to organize with his fellow
farmers to protect themselves agatns
the inroads of the middIemen and the
tenants; he needs better markets FOL
his crops and better transportation Ia
cilities to those markets; he needs
school for his children that will Civ
them as good an education as the
would get in any city school, schoE
that will instill in them love of tn
country, a knowledge of farming an
an appreciation Of its economic signif
canoe; he needs more recreation facil
ties for the whole family; he needs
handler kitchen for his wife an
daughter and more opportunities Il
them to broaden their lives and enric
their minds in literary and social Al
tivities.
The Church's Chance.
= '"The question is, Should the churc
give it? Should it go to Farm'
Smith and say:
"'Smith, am a bit ashamed Of m
self. have not been doing for yC
) what 1 ought. l have been preachiI
J about Elysian fields and allowing Il
: riches of blue grass. corn and whe
I fields to be squandered with prodig
: hand. I have been trying to pa
!, your road to glory land, but l ha'
1 paid no attention to your road to Il
, nearest market. | have talked abo
= mansions in the skies and cared lit
: about the buildings in which yOu al
1-,,,7r family T1ucr snand tbair Iiy