The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1915-11-05
FREAKS, FAILURES and
FORTUNE ! MAKERS ON
BINGHAM COUNTY FARMS
Conditions Wierd and Strange; Wealth, Want
and Despair Spring from the Same Condi-
tious and Walk Side by Side
CAUSE FOUND AND REMEDIES OFFERED

/ The editor of The Idaho Republic
can spent the month of October in
terviewing farmers in this county,
and If we have not found out what is
the matter with country life in Bing-
ham, it is because the combined wis
dom of all those interviewed does not
reveal it. Governor Brady appointed
a Country Life commission for Idaho
in. 1910, and they sent out some cir
cular letters asking a number of ques-
tions, held few committee meetings
at various places over the state, turn
ed in their bills for the expenses in
cident to travelling around by rail
and meeting some pleasant people in
the corridors of hotels, and upon such
experience made suggestions that no.
body ever followed or gave secon I
thought. In our work we have gone
from farm to farm and talked with
all members of the households, made,
personal examination of fields, fences,
wells, soils, bitches, buildings, pig
pens, cow stalls, milk cellars, school
z houses, country stores; all the things
and places and industries that have
to do with country life as it Is, at
night, noon, morning, any time we
found them, and somewhere in these
articles we are going to tell in de-
tail what is the matter with the .peo-
pie and their management in what we
!. believe ought to be and will yet be-
come one of the best and wealthiest
of agricultural sections In doing this
we are going to "hurt the country In
the eyes of those who would rather
poultice an ulcer than to lance it.
We are going to tell of places that
are absolute failures, where the peo-
| pie might as well mend their ways or
move out. We are going to tell what
is the matter and suggest the remedy,
and if our papers fall into the hands
of men who can apply the remedy,
we hope they will come to Bingham
county and seek out the failures and
offer their services or buy out the
owners and put the dormant re
sources into useful activity. If the
drones and mis-fits who are blocking
the wheels of progress in Bingham,
would honestly study and learn how
their successful neighbors in the
county are succeeding, and then fol-
low their example or sell and get out,
the commonwealth would be better
off.
Great Changes Coming
The persons who are detriment
to the country are small percent
age; those who are of little or no
benefit because of mistaken meth
DDS and ignorance of farming or
their indifference to improvements
they could and ought to make, are
"a large percentage. Those who will
learn from their more successful
neighbors or from reading or from an
agricultural superintendent when we
get one, are yet to be discovered by
their acts, for changes will come, and
they will come rapidly during the
coming five or ten years.
Conditions Growing Worse
The older settlements in the county |
are the most independent. The new
er settlements are doing some of the
most commendable things, and yet in
some new communities the rank and |
file are hanging the mantle of present |
and future failure upon their
shoulders and fastening 1t there. In
the southern half of the county are |
hundreds of acres of abandoned
lands; thousands of acres of claims
held by disappearing homesteaders,"
who show up" at intervals and pro-
vide witnesses to prove that at GER
tain dates they ate and slept and
washed handkerchief on their re-
spective homesteads. There are
thousands of acres of farms well |
fenced and under cultivation, farms
that have raised half q dozen consecu- /
tive crops and are SO impoverished
their owners can barely make liv-
ing. There are men among them
who had little to start with and are
succeeding SO we'll they are buying |
the others out There are men who
study modern methods anda look for
ward to an Utopia for farmers and /,