The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1922-02-16

press and platform that your relief
from low prices Is Intensive Farm
ing, that term having become a kind
Of slogan among those good souls Of
the city who know just about enough
about farming TO make their opinions
dangerous. They talk about booming
business, about advertising, about the
lively dollar, and about bigger, bet
ter, and buster towns, and they nat
urally assume that the same medicine
will cure the farmers ills.
You. as a wise farmer, know that
intensive farming means more, not
less, outlay per acre. You know that
II is the desperate device Of hopeless
ly congested populations, and you
know that in the countries that have
tried IL labor is 10 or 20 cents a day,
whereas, among US lately, men re-
fused to husk the corn crop at SO a
day and board. The result is that
corn is being hogged down this year
as never before, while thousands Of
men stand idle-all Of which is the
opposite Of intensive farming. No,
indeed, the wise farmer will not be
caught with that fly, any more than
an old fish would be caught with a
bare hook.
You are told, too, that IL labor is
expensive and scarce you should sub
stitute machinery for men. But
somebody must drive the machinery,
and, besides, when the old wears out
what is to be done? A self.binGer
this year costs $3.50, and the wheat
it cut sold in the markets not long
ago for less than dollar a bushel.
This means that it would take 16
acres Of average wheat to pay for a
binder. The fly struck 40 acres Of
my wheat this year, and the entire
crop would not pay for binder and
the expense Of threshing.
There is talk, / hear, Of a 20 per
cent reduction in the price Of farm
machinery for another season. My
opinion is that the reduction has to
be more than just that.
When the war was over, manufac-
turers of munitions were paying
around dollar an hour for labor in
the shops. In order to provide labor,
keep the shops running, and avoid
unemployment, these factories in
most instances turned their attention
at once to making either automobiles,
which they knew the people would
buy, or farm machinery, which had
been greatly depleted during the war.
The automobiles sold like hot cakes
at a country fair, but the machinery
is proving a drug on the market,
and quite naturally so, when it takes
a full acre Of oats to pay one days
wages of a mechanic.
Because the farmer has bought
automobiles freely, it has been as
sumed that he is rolling in money
and can buy anything. But the farm
err knows what he is about in this,
as in most things. A moderate
priced machine-and most autos on
the farm are neutrality-suspicious. a
driving team, snd makes a necessary
trip to town for supplies or repairs
a matter of minutes instead of hours
"a slight interruption instead Of an
all-day trip. There is no connection
between the car as a farm necessity
and the automobile as a city luxury;
nor is there necessarily much con-
nection between that farm car and
much of our costly farm machinery.
However the novice may be fooled,
the experienced farmer is not to be
caught below the belt at a time like
this. He knows that the way out is
in keeping out of debt and in avoid
ing every unnecessary outlay while
present conditions last.
II may be held that in this way
the farmer is not doing his share in
bringing back the thing we call pros
perity. Perhaps he isn't, but he has
heen hit first and hardest and the