Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-08-20

sustained coordination and co-ope-
ration IL results are to be achieved.
The trend of agricultural conditions
in Maine is not a matter of cost. 1t
cannot be chargeabie to the farmer
as an individual. It necessarily is the
result of some definite and continuing
condition.
The vital issue before us is,. How
can these conditions be cured? How
can this tendency be changed How
can Names agricultural interests be
started on the upgrade? The future
Of Maine is bound UP in the answer
to these questions, as Names future
is bound up in the development Of he-
natural resources. Her greatest sin
gle resource is her agricultural in
terests. To doubt our ability as a
people to find a full solution and
cure for these is to doubt our destiny
and quality of our citizenship, the
best to be found in any state in the
Union.
We may properly ask ourselves,
How can these problems be solved %
The first step for US to take is to sift
out the reasons and these reasons as
I see them are:
The increasing returns of labor and
capital found in other kinds of en-
ployment.
The better living conditions found
in the larger communities.
The shorter hours of labor in other
industries.
The change would have been great
er, the drift from the farm to the
cities more pronounced had it not
been that the farmer is in many in
stance-I think might say, in most
instances-tied to the farm by his
capital investments. For truly, the
farmer is capitalist. a manufac-
turer. a salesman and laborer.
AS capitalist his principle assets
are commonly invested in his farm
and when opportunity arose Of
changing his occupation and reaping
the benefit of the shorter hours and
the higher wages of the manufactur-
ing industries. he could not go out
without sacrificing the savings of his
lifetime. ..-4.
assessed valuation is represented by
the $200,000.000 invested in farming
property. In the United States, ac-
cording to the last census, there were
$4,000. 900 invested in farm prop
erty at the same time the invest
ment in manufacturing industries
was but practically $4,000. 900, 900. or
one-half as much. The employment.
of labor on Maine farms exceeds the
employment of labor in Maine manu-
featuring. In fact, the employment of
labor in agricultural pursuits in the
entire country exceeds the employ
ment of labor in any other industry.
there being about 12.500,00 employ
ed on the farm and only a trifle over
100000 employed in all manufac-
turing and mechanical industries.
The Maine farmer and the Maine
farmers family work on his own
farmland there are more than 100,-
600 thus employed in the State-and
works IL. IA, sometimes 16 hours.
His hours of work have been in
creased recently by the lack of labor.
while the tendency in every other in
dustry has been towards shorter
hours. At the present time the aver
a5O hOAlo VI AoOol AL otiiCA AhAoSIA 4Vo
is between eight and nine hours.
IT. is particularly your job to look
after the manufacturing problems in
volved in farming. for in truth, the
farmer is a manufacturer, producing
completed articles from absolutely
raw materials. Equally is the prob
lem of labor your problem. but the
problems involved in capital require
ments and in the selling or market
ing of your farm product is one that
should appeal to and be approached
by the business men and the financial
interests of Maine as part. and a
most important part, of their job.
And it is to these two phases Of
agricultural development that I shall
devote the time you have been kind
enough to place at my disposal.
These two problems are closely re-
lated because it is the question of
selling and marketing products that
as farmers we must solve before we
can command capital.
1t is not perhaps within my prov
ince to say that one thing is more
important than another put most as
suredly the problem of securing cap
ital for the development of farming
interests in Maine is a most vital one.
Just as changing business condi-
tons makes the merchant and the
manufactures need more capital to-
day than was required 20 years ago,
so do changing conditions make the
farmer need more capital and, until
i: is possible for the young man who
wishes to make farming his means
of livelihood, to command a sufficient
capital to properly develop his farm.
it is not going to be possible to keep
the young men on the farmland
right here you'd like to say that
perhaps the most alarming fact in
connection with farming in Maine is
in the average age Of the farmer,
which I understand to be approx
mately IS years. This means that
young men, to any considerable ex-
tent, are not taking up farming as
their occupation and that in a few
years the number of acres under
cultivation is likely to be still fur
Their reduced.
The banking and financial inter-
ests Of Maine are fully alive to farm.
ing conditions and farming needs
and know that they are ready to
render every needed assistance.
am confirmed in this opinion nv an
experience which had in 1917 n
was when a determined effort was
made to increase the acreage under
cultivation in Penobscot county You
Will remember that, Immediately fol-