Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-06-03
FUTURE OF THE farm
Why Conditions are More Promising
Than Ever.
SENSIBLE TALK TO BOYS and MEN

SENOlDLL lhLn ~ DOio hNp mLn
There Has Been Wonderful Change
in Conditions, and the Logic OF
Events Points Clearly to the Fact
That the Man Who Raises Bread
and Meat is to Have an important
Place in the Affairs Of the World.
Clarence Poe in the Progressive Farmer.
My Dear Boy:
In my last letter took up the ques-
tion as to whether you ought to make
farming your life work, but did not
quite get through with it. I empha-
sized the fact that among all the oc-
cupations Of men, farming almost alone
offers opportunities as an induotry, and
a business and n profession. 1t offers
opportunities for physical develop
ment through It's vigorous muscular
labor as an industry. 1t offers oppor-
tunities for intellectual development
through the vast wealth of scientific
knowledge which the farmer may uti-
lize in his work. 1t offers commercial
opportunities wise marketing and bus
mess methods, especially cooperative
marketing.
The idea that I tried to stress was
that If you are to go into farming and
expect to make farming pay, you
should utilize all these opportunir les.
You should be 100 per cent farmer
and not a SO 1-3 or sc 2-S per cent
farmer.
I realize, however, that this Is not
a sufficient answer to your question.
Suppose I dol set out to be a 100 per
cent farmer" \you say, can / even
then feel reasonably sure that I can
make farming pay? That is to say.
will the same effort Of mind and body
put into farming pay as well as If put
into other work? What are the cond-
ditions which have kept farming from
being a paying business during recent
years, and are these conditions, really
changing now? That is to say, may
go into farming with any assurance
that conditions will really be better
than they have been for the last 70
or so years?" :,
Those are serious questions and
they call for serious answers. Farm
ing during your fathers lifetime, 1t
is true, has not been, the paying busi-
ness It ought to be. It has not paid
any class Of farmers as well as 1t
ought to, neither the SO 1-s per cent
farmer nor the Sc 2-3 per cent, nor
even the 100 per cent farmer.
1t Is my belief, however, that farm
ing is not only more profitable now
than It has been., but is going to be
still more profitable i'll the future
That is to say, believe farm crops
are going to bring more and pay bet
ter in the future than they have paid
in the past. >..----A-
In giving my reason for this belief
shall have to talk about some rather
big questions. but I know you are
serious minded enough to be willing
to consider such questions when they
mean so much to you and your fu-
ture.
I believe that farm products are go
ing to bring better prices in the fu-
ture, for five or six reasons which
I shall now mention.
1. Because the drift to the cities has
left relatively fewer people to produce
food. All over the world for the last
fifty years tho pofportion Of people
in the towns has been increasing and
the proportion in the country de-
creasing. This means that we have
a greater proportion Of food -consum-
ers than formerly and smaller pro-
portion Of food producers. I am not
yet forty years old, yet when / was
born, about 30 people in each 100
here in the United States lived in
towns, and about 70 in each 100 in the
country. We had more than two coun-
try dwellers for every one town-dwel-
ler. Now the proportion Of country
residents and town residents Is almost
equal. Or take England. On a recent
visit to that country l found that dur
ing the preceding thirty years the city
population of England and Wales had
grown from II million to % million.
while the country population had act
ually shrunk from S,300,000 to 1900
900. Similar conditions are reported
in France; and even in far-away ia
pan, I found statesmen and news
papers discussing the same problem.
Farmers the world over have simply
been going on a strike" againstthe
low wages formerly paid them. They
strike by going into town industries.
Now this movement has gone so far
that it is no longer easy for people in
towns to get abundant food at the low
prices formerly paid. The consumers
of farm products must pay better
prices in order to keep on the land
enough workers to supply these pro-
ducts hereafter.
2. Western farmers can no longer
give away farm products in competi-
tion with our own. About fifty years
ago the United States government
practically gave away to settlers mill
lions and millions of acres Of marve-
lous rich lands in the corn and wheat
belts Of the west. Ever since the crea-
ton Of man these prairie soils had
been storing up fertility, most of them
were treeloss and required nr clear
ing: and the new settlers rushed in
and made enormous crops for little or
nothing. Consequently, they sold these
crops for little or nothing, and so
forced down the prices for all other
farmers in the United States. Now
this condition is changing. Western
lands sell for from 500 to $500 per
anre rents must he maid ON this basis