Smyrna times., 1925-08-26
SEES REAL PERIL IN DRIFT OF
FARMERS TO CITY CENTERS
DEAN McCUE POINTS TO THE
DANGERS OF MIGRATION
Business Methods Needed for Crops
and the Successful Farmer Must
Keep Abreast of New Conditions

Dependence of the city man on the
farmer was emphasized strongly by
Professor Charles Andres McCue,
dean of the Agricultural Experiment
Station of the University of Delaware,
in an address delivered before the XII
wants Club, in Wilmington, Thursday
afternoon.
''There are but three sources from
which man may obtain his food" said |
the dean. "These are the air, the |
water and the soil. Of these sources,
we, as a civilized nation, are prepOnd- |
erantly interested in the soil and what !
it may give us for bodily sustenance.
'Man must eat, and in its last
/ analysis, but little else matters" con-
tinued Dean McCue. "CivilizatiOn is
dependent upon the ease with which
man may procure his food Manufac-
turing, mining, storekeeping and, in
fact, all business, depends upon the
availability and relative cost of food"
Continuing, Dean McCue said:
"Any method that increases the ease
and efficiency with which raw food
products may be secured releases
man-pOwer for other lines of endeav-
or. If so-called business wishes to
succeed, prosper and progress it can
do so only in proportion to ease with
which food can be secured and the et-
fciency with which it may be placed
at the point of consumption. Thus we
see that after all the business of pro
ducing food for human consumption IS
the biggest business in America.
Reduced to the basis of cold fig
ures the farming business of Amer
lea exceeds in total dollar values the
combined values of any five manufac-
turing or transportation businesses
in the United States. The value OF
= the products of the steel and iron bus
, mess, great as it is, is q mere baga-
= telle in comparison with the value OF
products produced on American farms
cover a period of years, business In
America prospers as agriculture pros
pers. The worlds food supply i,
D the worlds business barometer. Con
, seouently, all our people are interest
= ed i'm agriculture, either directly or IN
= directly. Production, transportation
and distribution of food are nationa
problems that affect every home Il
t. the land, whether it be the miner
humble cottage or the millionaire
10 castle. 1t is for this reason that tn
la lawmakers of America have alway
w. considered agricultural legislation
mass LEGISLATION and not class legi.
'w lation. Agriculture is the basic indus
trv of the world, and being the bas
industry, its prosperity and progre.
IT'S is public business and public reSpol
w. sibilitv. l care not if you be Law
est yer, a doctor, manufacturer, a gro
1eO er or a bootblack, you cannot dodi
and the fact that your prosperity depen'
r 4 to a great extent upon the prosper
Of the open country. The Amerc'
farmer in the aggregate is the grea
est buving customer that the Amel
can business man has. When t
TT. farmer stops buying, business slum
and unemployment stalks through t
land. There must be a living wa
in the cities; but there must also be
living wage in the country. A llvl
wage in the city cannot become p'
manent thing unless there IS hvl
wage in the country.
American Farmers as a Class Etiicl'
GAS a class the American farm
is the most efficient farmer In
world He produces more food
!, : unit of man-pOwer than the farm
IL of anv other nation. Efficiency in
ricultural production should be m
sured in terms of production per I
of labor expended and not be ba
~ upon production per acre. The An
ican farmer, in bulk, has been q'
To avail himself of the findings
s. science and the results of invenu
,of The self-binder in the wheat fields
ed America made possible our great
,of dustrial development of the past
century. Invention, manufacture
use of labor-saving devices on
American farm, means just so n
more available &pOpulatiOn for
\ needs Of industry.
~ personally, / am not at all al;
ed at the trend of our rural poi
e St' ton toward our cities, am alar
however, at the quality of the
ward migration. We need brain
our American farms. This Is
greater now than at any time II
history. The city is draining
rural districts of brain power,
- is a far more serious thing tn
drainage Of man power. The mi
n farm is a factory that calls for b
to run it efficiently. The time
past when all that was needed to
d. living from the soil was S
sh back, weak head and an inclir
to work. Today efficient, succ'
farming calls for keen intellii
Atty clear thinking, good judgment a
education that permits its posses
TO- take full advantage of the findir
science and invention that pert;