Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1915-05-28

not raise any tame hay and they
have to depend entirely on wild
grass. At least in that locality, there
did not seem to be any crop that
could be used on the land that would
bring back the fertility of the soil,
which We can here in Wisconsin.
When they have raised wheat as
long as they can, they either have
to fertilize it or perhaps leave it
without any crop and let it grow to
weedes and plow that under. And
one great difference that l noticed
was that if a farmer bought a place
there and worked it for say ten
years, his farm would be worthless
at the end of that time, while in
Wisconsin his farm would probably
have been worth five times the
amount that it was when he bought
it. Furthermore, farming there seems
to be almost a gamble. In the first
place, the farmer has to do all his
work in a short time and will have
to have at least seven horses and
plenty of machinery and have to
have more or less hired help during
the summer. In fact farmer there
has to have enough money invested
in horses and machinery, even on
rented farm, to buy a good farm in
Wisconsin. Then he is liable to
have a drought or hail storm or hot
winds. He may have several years
without any crop whatever. His
crops may look fine one day and the
next day be all destroyed by hail
or hot winds.
In case of failure of crops, neither
the merchants or banks pretend
to try to collect their money from
them, as they know it is impossible;
but they simply carry them over an
other year, charging IL per cent in
terest. If there should be a failure
for two or three years in succession,
it means that the farmer might as
well load his personal property and
family on a wagon and drive out, I'M
less the personal property is all
mOrtgaged, so he has to walk out
and leave them and start all over
again in another place without any
thing. In spite of these conditions
many of our Wisconsin people not
only move out there and buy farms,
but many of our people with money
send it our there to be loaned on
farm property and apparently they
do not take into consideration that
they are taking a gamble on loans
On Dakota farms, where in Wiscon-
sin they have a sure thing. If
value in five years may be much less
than when the loan was made, while
on the Wisconsin farm, in five years
it is quite sure to be worth four or
five times the amount it was when
the loan was made. Taking these
matters all into consideration we can
not see how any of these places can
compare with Wisconsin as far as
farming is concerned. Nor can We
see why money from southern Wis
cOnsin should be loaned on Dakota
farms rather than northern Wis
consin farms.
AS already stated I do not say
that conditions as described may APP
ply to all of the states mentioned,
but at least it does apply to the
particular portion Of the states men,
toned which l went through and
undoubtedly to a large part of those
states.
l have confined myself to the sit
uation as / saw it from the stand
point of the farmer and have not
gone into any details of the balance
of my trip or pretended to give any
description of either of the fairs. /
think that if some of the dissatisfied
farmers of Wisconsin, could have ia
ken the trip with me, I am sure they
would come back to Wisconsin bet
ter satisfied than ever, that Wiscon-
sin is the garden spot of the United
States, all things considered
A. N. ANDERSEN.