The Republican journal., 1920-07-08
Pennsylvania Idle Farms

From Chester county, Pa, there comes
to US paper containing detail ed state
ment of the alarming con ditions which
prevail in a famous region which long has
held the highest place in the nation for
the productiveness of its farms. The
editor of the Oxford P ress shows how
acute is the situation produced by the
shortage of labor available for service on
the farms, how the number OF abandoned
farms is increasing in a section where
farming should be an attractive occupa-
ton if anywhere in the United States,
with great cities close at hand and every
modern comfort and utility within reach;
how where once one travelled for miles
with well-kept and flourishing farms on
both sides of the roads he finds now the
lands in grass or aba ndoned to weeds.
In Lancaster and Chester counties and
throughout southern Pennsylvania old
and decrepit men are trying at least to
care for the stock on the farms which
their sons have left in response to the
lure of the city. If some farms are oper-
ated to full capacity others are tenantless
or half cultivated, making the average of
cultivation far below what it should be
in such a farming paradise. In the rich
belt of land surrounding Philadelphia one
sees, for instance, a farm that few
years ago produced 1900 bushels of wheat
and today is given over to desolation, The
state of Delaware and the eastern shore
of Maryland show a one third shortage
of farm labor and corresponding reduc-
ton of crops. Lower New Jersey aver
ages.a quarter decrease, which amounts
to third in Cape May county. The huge
truck patches, aggregating tens of thou
sands of acres, in these fertile regions are
hard hit by prevailing conditions, espec-
tally by the loss of plain labor.
Against such background stands out
with peculiar distinctness the story of one
young man in Lancaster county whose
hard working devotion may we'll be cited
for the emulation of the rest of the coun-
try in these days of prospective food
shortage. He is an agricultural college
graduate who sticks to the farm In spite
OF the offer OF an instructorsAip by his
college. He is intelligent and earnest,
well aware of the seriousness of the prob
lem which the agriculture of the nation
has to solve. And all alone he is working
his 200-acre farm. Hired help cannot be
had; he has no grown children; he de-
ponds entirely upon himself. His neigh
bors are proud of him. He does not know
what the autumn will bring, but he keeps
on the job early and late, using all his
brains and gumption.
No wonder the dean of the Del ware
Agricultural College says foodstuffs are
going to be scarce and high; no wonder
the Pennsylvania secretary of agriculture
declares that "the farm labor shortage is
Of bo
ing the nation" The Oxford editor is of
the opinion that industrial America does
not know what is happening to agrcul-
tural America, but that industrial Ameri-
ca will have to pay the price All honor
to the man who all alone undertakes to
run farm. His example ought at least
to stir lot of New Highlander to go back
to their abandoned garden patches. -Bos-
ton Herald.
"How Cleared the Mill Of Rats" by ].
Tucker, X. !.
LAS night Waterman believe | have
seen more rats than any man. Dogs
wouldn't dar go near them Got 81 pkg.
OF RAT-SNAP, inside of weeks cleared
them all out. Killed them by the score
every night. Guess the rest were scared
away. I'll never be without RAT SNAP"
Three sizes, Csc, SOC, $40 Sold and
guaranteed by A. A. Howes & Co, Hall
Hardware Co., and City Drug Store
"Do you know that your chickens
come over into my garden?'
81 thought they must be doing that"
"Why did you think SOP"
because they never cone back"