The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1922-10-15
Why the Farmer Sticks to His job

traditions. they could start fresh. an they
did. The result is they're about a hundred
years ahead of u.s. They're modern
They've got into step with the changes
that's come over the world. But they've
got land robbers and narrer gauge minds
out there. too. The land on the prairie:
has been worth $500 an acre on a basis
of production. an it was easy to till, but a
lots gone out of it. When 1 went out t.
station platform in Peori' one morniD
piled up with furniture.
Immigrants" I says to the station
master.
NO. mister" he says; "emigrants." an
he grinned.
"Wha'd'ye mean emigrants?" says l.
Farmers" says he. 'They's twenty
seven families leavin' here this mornin'
They've cropped the land till it won't
grow no more wheat an now they're NOV
in on to Canady an the Dakotys TO Spite
some more-take everythin' out n put
nothin' back"
| went a trip to North Dakoty too an
there in the great checkerbosrd wheat
country 1 rode down township road Or
one side was piece o. land that had ben
cropped TO wheat for twenty three years
a-runnin' without any fertilizer bein' put
on it an nothIn' being plowed back into
1t, an the crop that year was jest eight
bushels to the acre. On tn other side OF
the road was new break outa the buffer
grass, never plowed before an it yielded
thirty-eight bushel. After twenty-three
years of fool farmin' We see the production
was reduced about eighty per cent
We'll" I says to myself. "aI the igno-
ramuses amt in Bascoms Bridge any
how"
BetwiXt diminishin' production an in
creasin' food graft a family o. Children
II be some liability twenty five years from
now. The farm bureaus kin cure one
'mebbe. but it looks as if it'd take a earth
quake to do away with the other. We
can't exhaust the good oil earth SOS but
what it'll come back if we treat it right
The hill piece 1 got from the oil Daggetl
farm adjOinin' me was wore out SOS il
wouldn't even grow weeds, but Hiram KEEP
on runnin' mowin' machine over il every
year thinkin he was haydn The third
year after l took it / took just twenty
nine an half bushels o. wheat off'n it tc
the acre by treatin' It half way decent. bu,
a lot of the troglodytes around Bascom's
Bridge said oughta be in the crazy house
fer piowin' down a perfectly good crop o
buckwheat.
What ye got to do to organize the
farmer is. first. to organize some sense
into him. The farm bureaus has done a
lot. Even them mummies around Bas-
CONS Bridge has learnt that sprayin' apple
trees amt foolishness. But they had to
lose five years crops to make 'em sense it
n the only thing that spurred 'em 20 it
was seem some other Teller gittin' little
money fer his apples just because he KEEP
the scale an scab an Goblin moth off OF
EN-. y round dollars the only argument
that kind O. farmers-or that kind o
folks in any business-kin understand.
An yet a lot O. them same birds II &c
away from home an really amount tC
somethin'. On the farm they never think
anythin's worth doin' or worth learnin'
An the only ambition they've got is to see
how much petty larceny they kin put over
on their neghbOrs SOS to leave a few hun
derds or few THOUSANDS when they die
on the farm they seem to think they're
buried. an 1 guess they be. It's becus
the returns don't look like nothin' The
farm fellers, like everybody else. is hipped
with the mania fer big money an fer
spendin Ii amt much wonder IL they
read the papers an the magazines they
git it preached 10 EN- all the time. an