Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-07-20

damns him, has made the farmer de.
pendent upon him to a degree.
Inter dependency. which meant the
depdendcnUe alike of the farmer and
| his business associates, was the true
state of affairs now.
The second fundamental idea which
lay at the bottom of rural economics
problems was corporation. This no.
ton was already involved in the con-
dition OF Observation-Disclosures which the
| farmer had reached.
In the third place the matter of ru-
raj population was fundamental. pco-
pie have "A careless WAY, said Prof
Groat. Of talking about the depopula
ton Of the country districts. Econom-
les enforced the fact that there al
ways existed norm of popula ton
according to the land and the environ
mont. This norm could not be- pre-
ciscly defined, any more than sea
level could be defined, and did not
actually exist perhaps. The average
student was another norm which
perhaps didn't really exist, but it was
useful nevertheless.
As to population, three factors
should be retained in mind: A.
The increase by birth or immigration.
p. The law of diminishing returns,
which stated the fact that ten men would
not get ten times as much produce from
a piece of land as one man would, regard
less oe the question of exhaustion of fer
tility c. The standard of living Il and
G were negative forces ana A was posi-
tive. Hence the resultant was not lust
what we might have expected it 10 he.
Many Of our problems We're being at
tackled in a wastcful way just because
all sides Of the question were not kept in
mind. Paucity and abundance of popu-
lation We're relative
MIR. HOLLANDS TALK.
President Holland gave some new as
poets to the proposition that pigs is not
pigs Years ago he got the idea into
his head that the bank might cooperate
more intimately with the farmer. lie
went to see professor at the Massachu-
sets Agricultural College in Amherst,
Mass. and the latter advised him to ON
ploy an expert, with the result aforemen-
toned. The farmers work became moro
efficient. he made more money and both
parties benefited. The three experts now
free to the farmer. who as the debtor of
the bank is himself sort Of employe.
The experts have done list Of things
which it took sheets of typewritten paper,
douhle-spaced. to mention. Here are some
Of them Zone years worl): Visits made,
%3, letters written, 20: circular letters
sent out. 10; pamphlets distributed. 600; IL
dairy record sheets given out; 30 meet
ings, of 2i9G persons. addressed; Is other
meetings, with 1913 people listening, for
demonstrations of cooking, canning, or
chard work, pig, cattle, milk and co.
operation meetings; more than 1000 miles
travelled by auto; 5G9 pigs distributed in
club work; pig show with As pigs eXhib-
itcd; total of nearly 5000 worth of bet
silos erected and 81 in prospect: brought
In cars of hay and alfalfa; grain buying
association organized. figured = dairy ra-
tons; made out 10 crop rotations: ar
ranged for loans to 90 farmers, 10 factory
hands and 80 boys and girls; helped in four
farm buildings.
Among the items Of work under way
high-grado and purc-brcd heifer calves;
two bull associations, for the purpose of
raising hloodod stock; two more grain
buying associations; plan to start con-
test among factory hands to make them
improve their home gardens winter cour-
scs for women in domestic science and
cooking.