The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-02-06
DETERMINES NEEDS OF CONN. FARMERS Committee Reports After Long
 Probe of Conditions. EASIER CREDIT IS
 URGENT NECESSITY Improved Methods and Co.,
 operation Spoken Of.

In response to a request of the American commission which visited
 Europe last summer for the study Of
 rural co-operation, Governor Baldwin
 recently appointed committee or lthree to prepare 8 brief report upon
 Agricultural Conditions and Needs lin Connecticut" for the use of the
 of Edward M. Chapman of Old Lyme.
 the Connecticut rnexnber of the Ameri-
 can commission; Walter Learned or
 New London and Professor E. O. Smith Of Storrs. Their report has. been given to the governor and the. The first settlers to make perma--
 nent homes in Connecticut seem to. have been attracted by the river and
 the fertility of its valley; and for 200 years the principal industries of the colony and state were either agricul- Etural or maritime. Mechanical pur- suits were always congenial to the people, however, and during the nine teenth century, with the rise of the factory system, these attained to prominence which has made Connecti- cut, in spite of it's relatively small area, one of the great manufacturing states 1 of the union. The assurance of 1 steady work. good wages, and the chance of advancement naturally ten ded to win enterprising and ingenious men from the farm to the factory Thus it has happened that causes within the state have tended to dinin- fsh interest in farming.
 Meanwhile causes without tended to discourage it. Hay, for instance, and other products of new western lands came into competition with home produce, which, though of ex- ceIlent quality, had to be laboriously and expensiveIy cultivated; and the fattening of cattle for market, which in the period of the Civil War was a thriving industry in some parts Of the state, could not compete with the
 highly organized methods of the great packing houses.
 Furthermore, large portions of the
 state have become in a sense subur- banized, farms along the seashore and among the hills have given place to the large estates or small holdings of summer residents and considerable
 numbers of men skilled in farming
 have been employed in their care.
 These men are still engaged in ru-1 raI pursuits, but agriculture as a
 means of livelihood has become sec ondary matter with most of them Decrease in Farming.
 These and other causes. brought quantity and quality of Connecticut farming during the later decades of the nineteenth century. In11910. 7o.S per cent. of the land area of the state was in forms; but there had been a decrease in total farm acreage from 2.S12.os5 to 2,1S5.7ss acres since 1900. There had also been a decrease in the acreage of the average farm from 85-8 to s1.5 acres-a change by no means unfortunate in itself. At tifarm property. including land, build ings, implements and animals. had materially increased from SIS, ,305.- 5s0 to $15s, ,399.771. This change in values may be said roughly to indicate the change in the attitude Of the peo- 1 pie toward agriculture.
 Agricultural Awakening
 l Within the last decade there has been a marked awakening to the need of better farming and the chance
 which it offers for making not only 8 living but life. Connecticut farms
 are generally cultivated by the own CTS. Tn 1910, 23,234 farms were managed by their owners, 942 by sal
 aried managers and 2.632 by tenants.
 Dairying is upon the increase; renew ed attention, thanks to the persistent l teaching of the states agricultural I college and experiment. station is be- l ing given to orchard products, which | climate and soil both favor, but which have been generally neglected. The
 raising of sheep and the fattening of 1 cattle are also being widely advocated, and when the problems of a proper protection of the former from the
 ravages of dogs and adequate market ing facilities for both are solved there | is bound to be a substantial increase i in the number and value of livestock. 1 Banking Advantages.
 Connecticut has ad1pirab1e sys- tenn of mutual savings banks, no joint
 stock company being permitted to use
 the name savings bank,'' and these have long been chief resource of the
 farmer and small householder desir-s l ing loans on real estate. Further l more, mortgages on Connecticut real
 estate are practically free from both
 state and local taxes, an arrangement
 which insures to the general adyan-
 tage of borrowers. The rate at which
 savings banks lend mortgage is
 about per cent, and on good se- curity money from private lenders
 can generally be had at rate vary i ing from to per cent. The mort gage note is usually a demand note
 and fees orr commissions are rarely
 burdensOme. Some banks provide
 that sums of not less than $1OO may be paid at any time upon these notes The facilities of the Connecticut far
 ner for longtime credit may there
 fore be said to be fairly adeuuate-
 provided he has clear title to his land I-except that the longtime loan with
 provision for amortization is practi-
 calIy unknown.
 Short-Time Credits
 [ The small farmers facilities for
 short-time credit are much less ade-.
 Quate. The chatte1 mortgage is not
 in favor either with bankers or repu-
 table private lenders. Some far
 mers in need of credit are carried by the country merchants during the pe-
 riod of making their crop, but 1t can
 scarcely be said that the method pre- hvails ageneral nakeshift for bank | ing. The frugal and weIl-to-do far
 mer usually has his bank account en- toying much the same credit facilities
 as the merchant; and no man has
 better standing with his banker It
 is, moreover, encouraging to note that
 some banks are trying to increase