The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1923-08-22
POOR FARMS AND
POOR FARMERS

A train passing through the out
liers of the Cumberland mountains
had been stopped because of an OBJ
struction on the track, and as is usual
on such occasions the passengers had
"piled out" Although the region
was lonely almost to the point of des-
olation. the great northbound flyer,
bringing a concourse of winter tour
lists. was halted in the very dooryard
of a little farmstead, whose occu-.
pants came forth to observe the "fur-
riners."
Back of the cabin, wearing its great
stake and mud chimney as a small
person might wear a tall hat, rose a
beetling cliff, some 200 feet sheer
up the mountain side, and a ragged
hill lay an eighth of a mile in front,
making a defile where dawn came late
and sunset early. Stones, not the
rounded stones of the glacial area,
but jagged fragments of shale,
strewed the ground, causing a pas
senger to jocularly remark that one
could hardly tell where farming be-
u and quarrying left off. Almost
within throw of n of the stones an
astonishing large flock of turkey
buzzards, at least $50 of them, were
circling, and the shadow of their ser
rated wings as they sailed, effOrtlesS
as the thistledOwn for all their awk.
ward bulk, fell sinister upon the mea.
ger soil and the meager farm mar
and woman anil their meager children
hounds, and hogs, the two hogs twice
o~utnumbered by the hounds.
A comfortable C~hicagOan, survey
ing the spectacle awhile, burst on
with:
"Poor stock, these people here. No
like the continental north EurOpeal
stock that has made Minnesota an.
Wisconsin blossom. Look at tn
farms of these mountaineers."
There was something in his figure
something in the enunciatiOn Of hi
English perfect though its pronun
citation was, that indicated he belOnge
to the general stock to which he ha
paid a decided, if indirect, encomiun
His remark happened to be immedi
ately addressed to a friend and fel
low Chicagoan who was a New Eng
lander born and who, being sOmethin
of a student of the colonial period
knew he belonged to the same con
mingling Of English, Irish, ScOttis
and HueguenOt French as did the dis
paraged mOuntaineers. He came t
their defense.
These folks are of as good stui
as any in the world, and have give
an excellent account of themselves /;
various times in our history. The
are poor because they are on poe
soil, and the people of the states yC
mention, to some extent, at least, Ell
JOY prosperity because fortunai
chance placed them upon land bot
fertile and easy to toll.
when the bureau of soils begs
work, it's initial operations being
Maryland. the Investigators began
perceive that the poor, the inefficieI
in justice, we should say ineffecti1
farmers were almost wholly on POI
land. Here and there among Il
poor farmers on poor land occurred
isolated instance of a prospero1
farmer, a man who had found meal
to conquer the poor soil. Yet t
same capital, enterprise and indust
expended on land which was good
begin with would have given him We
much larger returns.
ct is not alone the poverty of t
rough, stony soil which causes t
poverty Of the southern mountainet
Distance from market is a larg
factor in the poverty. Indeed, II
all this mountain country is eth
poor or stony. There are stretch
of fine soil, bearing noble fores
but agriculture can not thrive whe
there is too great a disproportion
the time it takes to raise things a
the time required to place them w
a purchaser. Emigrants from
southern mountains have done splt
didly in more favorable locations"
"Have they?" said the first M
"There are a good many who, l hs
been told, are Of this stock, sett
along the large rivers of Visions
Iowa and Minnesota, and, honest
they don't prove your contention.