Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1917-03-30

ment keep in touch with one another
by correspondence and occasional
gatherings. If one is confronted with
the problem of putting through
school bond issue against the retired
farmer vote in his town, men who
have had experience in dealing with
just such situation will go and help
him. Information about good meth
DDS Of town betterment, and stories of
success, are gathered and published
for help and inspiration. The rail
roads have been enlisted-whether
country communities are. going for
ward or back is life-and-death mat
ter to them, because much of their
traffic originates on the farms. The
bankers are organizing to help-coun-
try communities create deposits and
loans. The agricultural colleges are
being brought into line-more than
one hundred country-bred graduates
of certain corn belt agricultural COL
lege returned to the farm last year,
whereas less than two hundred had
done so for the whole forty years be-
fore that, an indication of better teach
ing and keener interest in country pos
sibilities.
The retired farmer himselfis getting
into the game. Even after he has re-
tired and moved into town to loaf he
wonders why he ever did it. Actually,
he did it because he didn't know bet
ter. 1t was the regular thing to do.
He was invited to do it. All the
neighbors retired and moved to town
when the children had gone away, and
neither his own imagination nor any
body else'S had worked out a broader
scheme of existence for mother and
himself.
But now the retired farmer is going
in for selfimprovement. If he has
made the mistake of moving into town
and doing nothing, he finds something
to do.
The biggest farm implement bust
ness in one county belongs to two
brothers, bachelors, who left their
farm with plenty Of money when they
were approaching sixty. A year or
two of town idleness was enough for
them. They went in for pleasure
while they were loafing, and spent
money freely, but something seemed to
be lacking. That something was just
work. They rented small store, put
in few farm implements, and started
business on town lines. The venture
was looked upon rather as a joke at
the outset. 1t was thought that the
farmers knew little about town bust
ness and that they were too jovial a
pair to stick to that line long. But
they have now been at it five years,
introduced implements never used in
that section before, and outgrown all
competitors.
Another retired farmer with ample
means went into the implement bust
ness, too, after year of loafng in
town. To implements he added real
estate, and to that automobiles. Late
ly he has built = thirty thousand dol
lar garage and this year plans to sell
about one car a day. Still another
farmer retired as the result of a fall
from a scafold, which crippled him.
He moved to town and built himself a
house. That reused his interest in
building, so he bought some acreage,
laid it out in town lots, built some
houses for sale and rent and soon had
thriving business.
There are other retired farmers in
that town who have fonnd something
to do with the remainder of their lives
and it is said to be quite typical of the
place that when, not long ago, a re-
tired merchant and a retired saloon
keeper were circulating petition in
the effort to stop all paving work for
at least year, because it would mean
assessments on property they owned,
four retired farmers owning property
that would be affected, too, fought
them for obstructing public improve
ments and carried the day.
And the farmer who retires nova
days is apt to work out better way
of doing it than ten years ago. When
he leases the farm to a tenant he re-