Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1918-12-25
OBSERVATIONS.
(By q Cornfield Philosupher.)

" OOA IL IA A.VNO
(By a Cornheld Philosopher.)
have been asked, il the conditions
under which farmers live are as pic
tured how they have been able to do
as we'll as they have done.
There are five principal reasons.
The first is they have lived largely of
Of their capital The farmers capital ia
the fertility OF his soil. Crops use up
the potash nitrogen and phosphates.
When these are exhausted, crops will
not mature. All Of them have a com.
mercial value and expert chemists
can determine exactly how much of
each any given crop will take up.
Humus, which is decayed vegetable
matter, Is also necessary. The good
farmer puts back on the land in some
form of fertilizer as much or more of
these elements as the crops remove
and If this had been on every farm
westward from the Atlantic seaboard,
the cost would have bankrupted the
tillers of the soil. The exhausted,
wornout, farms in the East now worth
barely the value Of the buildings were
at one time productive and worth SIS
to 500 per acre.
The second reason is the invention
and use of improved farm machinery
the work of at least four on the old
plan. Indeed it would not be possible
today to cut hay with a scythe, era
die grain or cut corn with a corn knife
as our fathers were compelled to do.
A third reason is the great reduction
in prices that mail order houses have
brought about on almost everything
the farmer consumes. Storekeepers
no longer make the Dutchman's one
per cent Indeed but few of them
make more than a decent living as
they have to compete with great cat
alog houses with unlimited capital.
The fourth reason is the long hours
Of labor the farmer puts in. If his
time and the time of his family was
computed on the hour basis and the
same rate of wages allowed as skilled
labor commands in other lines, scarce
w a farmer would be making expenses
and wages, let alone any interest, on
his investment. AS it is, the average
interest rate on farming business runs
pretty close to per cent, which is the
lowest on any calling. One farmer In
400 gets an income sufficient from
both his labor and his capital to re-
quire the payment of a war tax while
one lawyer in five and one banker In
four get into this fortunate class. But
it is no wonder since the farmer gener-
ously allows the middlemen 65 cents
out of every dollars worth he grows
for Handling" his products.
The fifth and best reason why the
owners of the land-this don't apply
to renters-are sometimes able to lay
by something for a rainy day, and to
keep them out of the poor house In
their old age is the increase in the
value Of land, especially here in the
West:
In Minnesota there has been an
average annual increase In the value
of improved land the state over OF
approximately $3.50 per acre. This
has accrued to the land owners in the
form of an unearned increment. For
instance, suppose a man buys LOU
acres for SO per acre, lives on 1t ~
years, steadily improving it, It he only
makes his board and clothes, and the
expenses from the crops, yet his land
now worth $50 per acre and often
more, costing only $1,000 would sell
for at least $4,000. So should he dis.
pose of his farm he would have $500
for his 20 years labor if he handn't
made a cent from the crops, also the
original cost of the land.
It is increase in the value OF farm
lands much greater in some favored
sections than given above that. mas
put land owners in possession OF
competence and allowed them to take
up a residence on "easy street" IN
some adjacent village.
But emitting this factor from con
sideration, and it would have to be
omitted where land values are at a
stand-still or going backward, the In
comes from the farms, considering the
risks, the losses, the expenses, and the
long hours of labor are less than In
other callings and fully answer the
question why ambitious farm boys, so
often prefer other occupations, and
why the rural population In some
states is steadily on the decrease.
Make farming as prosperous as 1t
should be and the "back to the farm
movement" would almost depopulate
some of our towns and cities and
hardly leave enough to perform the
necessary labor. A strong virile, hap
py, prosperous, educated rural popu-
lation is the hope of the nation.
It is in the country, and not in the
cities where humanity Is beset with
so many temptations, that ideal citi.
zens and statesmen are reared. Put
the business of agriculture on an
equal footing with other callings
guarantee to the growers the profit
on what he may produce, and peace
and plenty with the blessings of free
institutions will make America, In
deed a happy and favored land:
This Is the Heaven born mission OF
the Non Partisan League.