The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-04-06
FARM CH|LDVl
HOPE Of FUTURE
PRES. J.. r. HOWARD WOULD MAKE
FARM ATTRACTIVE BY
EDUCATION
DANGEROF PEASANT SYSTEM RETURNING
solution Of Grave Problem Lies In
Increasing Advantages of
Farm Life
BY ]. r. Howard, President Farm

By j. r. Howard, President Farm
Bureau Federation.
Editors Note-J. r. Howard is
president Of the American Farm Blu
r"au federation, an organization Of
American rural dwellers, of progress.
sive, thinking farmers. What lie he's
to say strikes a note that .nay
sound alarming until one reads his
offered solution. The happiness of
children On the farm is a matter that
is Of vital Importance to you.
Here and there a hilltop eighty has
worn out and lies beneath the sun
ing, to the hungry who tramp over
it. Hills that never failed the buff
falo for nobody knows how many
thousand years are gray with the ex-
haustion of extensive production.
So long as the sod was unbroken
the fertility Of the soil remained in
tact. The pioneers who broke the
seal found the soil richer than crea-
ton. For under the unhampered
government Of Mother Nature all
plants give back their surplus at the
end Of every summer. The first
wheat field waxed golden on the
legacy of the frugal prairie grass.
The first corn fields spent riotously
the compound interest of centuries
of the earth's careful savings of plant
food. And the farmers fed their
crops on the soils store for so many
years before it became noticeable that
the principle was being touched, that
the supply was unconsciously sup
posed to be inexhaustible. We
sowed intensively, reaped bounteous.
ly, and then burned the straw and
stubble complacently. So long as
the virgin qualities Of the soil, under
a system of wasteful soil mining, sup
ported a .elatively spare population
we were not worried about the future.
And now many an aenemic field dots
the countryside in mute reproach.
Fortunately, however, farmers are
awakening to the fact thar soil must
be revitalized. Public opinion for
bids the burning Of straw. Legumes
have been put to making hay and
nitrogen. Fertilizer comp inies are
doing business. Phosphate and lime.
stone deposits are being distributed,
The hilltop eighties are hting re
juvenated. Just as the land has been
Gevitalized, h..Ie and there Il farIl
community has worn out. The church
door has been nailed shut. The
school house is out Of date. The
children of the old homestead have
moved to town and the farms are
now the abodes of transient families
who hope to get enough ahead to
move to town also.
No nation has ever arisen above the
level of it's agriculture and the dead
communities scattered through the
United States are comparable to the
white alkali patches on the hilltop
eighty. And if allowed to spread
will ruin our country just as sure as
blight will wipe out an apple orchard.
The worst of it is that the wor
out community is not necessarily the
one where the land is past produc.
ton. If that were the case the
building up Of the soil would bring
a flow of new blood back into the
personnel Of the occupants. 1t is
often in our richest sections that the
human force Of agricultural produc.
ton is at low ebb.
We are used to thinking when we
speak of agricultural production, Of
grain and livestock, cotton and wool,
lumber and fruit. But the open
country has an important product in
boys and girls who constantly feed
our cities.
The history Of the p~ulseless com
munity is we'll known. The pioneer
father who thrust his pillow into the
unbroken prairies was as vital as his
acres. He had come to the new
country to make a home. His neigh
bors were home builders. The non
interference Of outside world, need
for protection and common ideals
fostered social contact. They were
the best type of humanity. being the
kind who were not cOntented to lie
Door in the state or the foreign
country from which they came. Since
they were in their new homes t.
stay they set about making Their
communities fit places in which L
live. They built school houses and
churches at this same time they brGkt
the sod and put up barns. The next
generation took up community build
ing at the point left off by their par
ents. The old homestead was KEEP
in the family. all members Of which
started out equally. II anything, the
boy whose lot It was to stay home
and run the farm was considered Il
be q bit better off than the boys WHIT
had studied pedagogy or medicine. OF
letters. Fortune had not overtakoI