The Chesterfield advertiser. [volume] (Chesterfield C.H., S.C.) 1884-1978, 1919-05-22

by Clarence Poe, editor of The Pro-
gressive Farmer. This is one Of
series Of Success Talks for Farm
Boys"now appearing in that excellent
paper. The next one will appear
shortly. We think that every farm
er's boy in the county ought to be a
regular reader Of that paper
Because we know they are not. we
are publishing this excellent article.
My dear boy
In my last letter took up the ques-
ton as to whether you ought to make
farming your life work, but / did not
get through with 1T. emphasized the
fact that among all the occupations
ofmen, farming almost alone offers
opportunities as an industry, and a
business, and profession. 1t offers
opportunities for physical develop
labor as an industry. 1t offers op-
portunities for intellectual develop
ment through the vast wealth of sci
entifc knowledge which the farmer
may utilize in his work. 1t offers
wise marketing and business meth
DDS, especially cooperative market
ing.
The idea | tried to stress was that
if you are to 80 into farming and ex-
pect to make farming pay, you
should utilize all these opportuni-
ties. You should be a 100 per cent
farmer and not a 33 per cent or n
sc per cent farmer.
| realize, however that this is not
sufficient answer to your question.
Suppose do set out to be a 100 per
cent farmer" you say, '"can l even
then feel reasonably sure that l can
make farming pay?That is to say,
put into farming pay as well as
if put into other work? What are
the conditions which have kept farm
ing from being 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 25 or so years."
These are serious questions and
they call for serious answers. Farm
ing during your fathers lifetime, it
is true, was not the paying business
it ought to be. 1t has not paid any
class Of farmers as well as it ought
to, neither the 33 per cent farmer
nor the 66 per cent, nor even the
100 per cent farmer.
1t is my belief, however that farm
ing is not only more profitable than
it has been, but is going to be still
more profitable in the future. That
is to say, believe farm crops are go
ing to bring more and pay better in
the future than they have been in the
past.
In giving my reasons for this be-
lief | shall have to talk about some
rather big questions, but | know you
are scrious-minded enough to be will
ing to consider when they mean so
much to you and your future.
! believe that farm products are
going to bring bettes prices in the
future, for five or six reasons which
| shall now mention.
! Because the drift to the cities has
left fewer people to produce food.
All over the world the last fifty years
the proportion of people in the towns
has been increasing and the proper
tion in the country decreasing. This
means much greater proportion
of od-cOnsumcrs than formely
and a smaller proportion Of food-pro-
duccrs. 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 2 country dwellers for every
towndwellcr. Now the proportion
of country residents and town resi-
dents is almost equal. Or take Eng
land. On recent visit to that coun-
try ] found that during the prcced-
ing years the city population Of Eng
land and Wales had grown from II
million to % million, while the coun-
try population had actually shrunk
from 100000 to 100000. Similar
conditions are reported in France and
even in far-away Japan, found
statesmen and newspapers discuss
ing the same problem. Farmers the
world over have simply been "going
on strike"against the low wages
formely 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 in order to keep on the land
enough workers to supply these pro-
ducts hereafter.
2 Western farmers can no longer