Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-25
Farmers Leaving the Country.


The West Chester Local News, which is
Clearinghouse for the wants of the peo-
pie of Chester county, contained on Satur-
day almost two pages of notices of public
sales OF stock and implements of farmers
who were going to stop farming prior to
the first of April. These comprise almost
twice the average number of farmers ad-
rertising their intention TO give up the
business at this time each year, which
indicates that despite the high price of
produce, the farmers have found the till
ing of the soil either Improbable OF at
tended BY too much Of long hours and
hard work Many Of the men giving
up are owners or tenants Of some of the
finest farms in Chester county, who per-
haps have found il impossible to get help
Of any kind, and are ready to abandon
tilling the soil. While we are paying
twice as much for eggs and butter and
potatoes and everything of the kind. as
we did prior to the war, we must remem-
Der that the farmer is paying three times
as much for his hired help; that feed for
the stock is almost trebled IN value, and
that his fertilizers are 200 per cent higher
than FIVE years ago. So the farmers life
has not been happy one during and fol-
lowing the war, and one cannot wonder
that he is ready TO quit and turn to some
other work where, without the invest
ment of a cent and in half the actual !
working hours, he can make more money
than the land can be made to net him.
In some sections of Chester county, /
last year, farmers were obliged to pay /
at the rate of eight or nine dollars day /
for corn husking, which is more than four /
times the pre-war rate-even FIVE or SIX /
times when one considers the less amount
of work accomplished in a day IN those
busy times when men were scarce and in
dependent. Such changes are to be found
along the whole scale of prices. and while
labor was high and inefficient, it was i'm
possible to geteven Indifferent kind for the
farmer had no diversions nor Saturday
afternoons off for his workers, and no
amusement organizations to keep his
hands interested or entertained
The vacated farms doubtless will be
taken by other farmers, who probably
will be ready to quit in year, and so the
turnover will be. constant, year by year
until it will seem to have reached the
point, for the land and build
ings depreciate rapidly under the short
term tenantry.
This will not, however, solve the farm |
ing problem. But it must be solved We I
must have the produce OF the farms just
so surely as we must have fresh air; and
he business must be organized on another
basis, just as many other lines of business i
nave been re-established and with more .
and efficient methods, and the {
employment Of scientific processes. Then
-he land may be made to yield a fair re- {
urn for the outlay of capital and labor
without at the same time making the :
burden so heavy or the life of the farmer Z
md his family so drab and colorless. 7
Whoever can solve the farming riddle
will have rendered great service 10 the !
ountry. Farming undoubtedly must be +
established on another hasis We have of \
ate years seen the farne, owning better {
tock; dairies that yield much more than l
ne old-tiIne herds; horses that are supe- =
Tor to the farm animals Of our fathers "
ay and hogs that were more economical G
: fattened and hens that laid almost l,
Siee as many eggs as the old barnyard n
owls OF twenty-five years ago But all l.
these advantages have been more than G
fset by the increased cost of labor. etc p
le lmpossibility of getting help at all-so II
rat much land was necessarily left NJ
ilow or the crops not harvested at the G.
roper time. When the price Of labor ~
sciines, as it must soon, the prices Of the n
I'm products must also drop com n
ensuratelv, SO that the farmer win be "
me the better off "
itAeems obvious, and the only way out q