Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1922-06-16
Kshna county k Friday June 6 1922
The Farmer in The
Commonwealth
By RALPH H. GABRIEL
prof. of History, Yale University

built up by the evolutionary method OF
the selection OF the fit and tie elimination
4 Of the unfit. The process was quite the
n reverse. Democracy's policy OF lavis''
distribution Of the rich bounty of nature
gave the inefficient an equal chance with
q the efficient, the farne- with the man who
d knew nothing of agriculture. 1t is doubt
full if the penalty for individual failure,
either on the fields or in the city, has ever
been so light as in America of the nine.
Z teenth century when the down-andout
could still go west. Of such materials
the American farmer group was originally
composed. Is it surprising that this
group, until recently practically isolated
from contemporaneous civilization, should,
/ at times, bring forth strange things? The
security enjoyed by the nineteenth CEN
tury is paid for, in part, by the socialistic,
Non-Partisan League of the twentieth.
"But the picture is not all dark; the
very disadvantages Of the farmer group
proved advantageous. The equality of
4 tie frontier that enticed the derelict de-
veloped a sturdy independence and an
outstanding individualism that has separ-
ated the farmer of America from the
peasant of Europe by an impossible
gulf The very isolation of the primitive
frontier that brought intellectual stag
nation developed that aggressive resource
fulness upon which success is built. Out
of the composite of peoples that crossed
the Appalachians came the American.
Though many of the ADLER men left the
farm for the cities, in more cases than we
know the love of the soil remained with
them. From these, for the most part,
were recruited that army of experiment
ers who, in the last half of the nineteen
century, brought into being the science
of agriculture.
A New Epoch.
''The last decade of the nineteenth
century saw the conclusion of the Ole
epoch in American farming and the be
ginning of the new agrarianism. The
frontier disappeared bringing to an enc
the timeworn process of increasing agri-
cultural products by taking up new lands
Escape from the rigors of competition
was cut off. Moreover, the rolling prairie
country had been covered with network
of railroads and the haunts of tie bison
shook under the wheels of hurrying loco
motives. As free land disappeared and
the country filled up with people, land
values rose and farms became costly.
Ex-Secretary Meredith re n V
announced that, in the forty years from
1860 to 1000, du,ing most Of which time
the frontier was an active force, farm
values increased only twenty per cent.
In 1920, they we're five times as great as
in 1900 and the end is not yet. Not only
have farms become costly but the tools
which have replaced the scythe and cradle
have greatly increased in expense. The
result of these changes is that farming has
passed out of the simple, almost primitive
development of the nlid-nineteenth cen
fury and become a capitalstic enterprise |
purged of Riffraff.
The change is one of the fundamental !
factors in tie new agrarianism. 1t is a |
change which has brought memorable |
into the farmer group and a |
wedding out of the unfit and the inefficient.
The purge of the rifraff that flooded the |
farming areas of America during the |
years in which they served as the safety !
valve of the. nation has begun. The grow |
ing keenness of this competition has !!
played no inconsiderable part in breaking |
down the lethargy of 'old habits already |
and insensibly acquired without any ex-
pense of thought" and in bringing open
to the new agricultural science.
For more than a quarter of century
the land grant colleges and the State and
National experiment stations developed
this science against the day when there
should be no more unoccupied land
They foresaw that, when it came, food
production must be increased by the use,
Of better methods. To abolish the inertia
Of the traditional farmer and to put the
new science actually at work behind the
plough was the task which lay ahead.
The beginning of the solution of this
problem is at the very centre of the !.
,grarian movement of the first quarter
IF the twentieth century, M
A Potent Factor.
almost overnight, the Farm Bureau
has become a factor of major national
Importance. 1t must not be believed
hat this is the only farmers organization.
There are active survivals of earlier or
carnations of which the Grange is prob
IDLY the most powerful and most useful.
Furthermore there are organizations of
SPECIALISTS within the agricultural field
uch as the Dairymens League and the
National Wool Growers Association.
The centre of this complex of organiza-
ions, however, is to be found in the Farm
Bureau.
"And what is the Farm Bureau? Its
'rigin viii explain its character. 1t Is
founded upon the Smith
ever Law, signed by Mr. Wilson on
Nay 8, 1914. This measure appro-
'riated more than 100000 for the
arrying on Of agricultural extension work
Imong the farmers of the various states,
With the proviso that the states benefit
ng should at least duplicate the sums
by the National Government.
t was an attempt on the part of the
National Government to put the new
cience of agriculture actually at work
m the nations farms. The land grant
olleges were to supervise the task in the
tates. The solution took two forms, the
building up Of extension departments in
he colleges themselves and the develop
nent of the county agent. The latter
tands at the centre of the whole organi-
alton. He is not an expert and is not