Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-15
BY MARK SULLIVAN.
. APID changes In many aspects OF
y life are creating at once van

culture is the chief contention in the
tariff bill over which the Senate Is now
wrangling. Consciousness of change
not clearly understood but vaguely
feared as a menace, is back OF the
almost passionate demand that the pres
ent tariff revision be confined to helping
agriculture and agriculture only.
perhaps it should be added at once
that no one believes the tariff, whether
old style or proposed new style. is or
can be the sole agency determining the
fate OF agriculture. The influences af-
fecting the farm are wider than the
tariff. Undoubtedly, however, the tariff
is one agency, and a very considerable
agency
Something Has Been Happening.
That something has been happening
to Notwithstanding disagreeable to
the farmers sufficiently well known
Thousands of pages of the Congress
sional Record since 1922 testify to it.
The existence of the Federal Farm
Board testifies to it. But the direction
of the Transformation. the ultimate
status of the farm and the farmer, is a
thing that few persons are clear about
Few persons is too broad a phrase
No person embraced within the range
of the present writer's conversations or
reading can answer the farmers ques-
ton, Where do We go from here?'
Some persons make confident predic-
tions, but as a rule the more confident
the prediction, the less dependable 1t is.
Thoughtful, sure-footed persons confine
themselves to saying that a rapid evo-
luton is under way, but that the future
stages of it are a matter OF guesswork
Future Remains Problem.
We can state the problem thus;
Everybody knows what is the typical
average American farm today. But
who can venture to say what will be
the same thing 10 or Is years from
now-what will be the typical, average
American farm in, let us say, the year
1910?
The typical American farm of today
is plot of land from 20 to ITS acres,
owned by one farmer and operated as
. rule by himself and his family.
To start with the narrowest and most
concrete aspect of the problem: What
will be the size Of the future American
farm? Will it be smaller, as the typical
farm is in that excellent farming coun-
try, France? Or will the future Amer
lean farm be larger? And If larger,
what will happen to the ownership?
viii. the ownership continue to be in
dividual? Or will the ownership be
corporate? .
Hoover's Views Are Quoted.
If the answer to the last question
Is YES" then assuredly We shall see a
striking change in the social aspect OF
the farm. President Hoover, in his
campaign last year, said knowingly that
farming is more than an occupation
1t is state of living" Farming as
state of living is involved-is indeed at
stake-in what is now going on. Ger
tain Western Senators think this pow
erfully. They think the future Of the
American farmer rests on their hands.
AS one of them put 1t to the writer,
This is the last stand of the American
farmer as we have known him; II he
loses, he will become hired man."
That the average farm is growing
larger is asserted by some, and denied
by others. The changes going on are
SO new that ordinary statistics do not
fully give the answer. The changes in
farming, as in other aspects of Amer
lean life, are so rapid that they are
upon us before the statistics can catch
up with them.
Larger Unit Is Favored.
Fugitive bits of information seem to
indicate that the tendency is toward
a larger unit of farming. In the East,
old small farms are being bought up
and combined by wealthy persons who
operate them as estates"
One Of the richest farming counties
in America, one of the regions best
adapted by nature to farming, is Ches-
ter County, Pa. It lies all within 60
miles and some within 20 miles of a
large city, Philadelphia. In that county
the old-time small farm Is decidedly not
holding its own. Groups of 10 to 20
farms, of so to 100 acres each, are
bought up by men who have become
wealthy in manufacturing automobiles
or radios. The social changes attend
ing this enlargement of the unit Of land
ownership are preaching. Ten men
and 10 families who were formerly In
dependent become something else: In
some cases they become hired employees
of the new owner.
From the West a tendency very Diff
ferent, but arriving at the same end,
is reported as just getting under way.
A few years ago when prices were high
banks loaned more money on farms
than was safe. When the prices of
land fell the banks became owners of
many farms. In some cases the banks
have put these farms, as groups, under
the management Of experts who use
hired employees.
Corporations Are Formed.
From elsewhere in the West it is re-
ported that corporations are being
formed which have routine technique.
The corporation seeks out any farm
that is for sale at a low price. they
buy 1t and they instruct the former
owner to remain where he is and to
operate the farm according to the di-
rections of the corporation manager.
From Western Kansas the Wichita
Eagle reports that the most striking
success with the present years wheat
crop was accomplished by a man who
operated units of more than 1900 acres:
From New York State 1t Is reported
mat nearly 10 per cent of what was
farm land 10 years ago now is some
thing else Some of it is being bought
I'D by the State for reforestation OF
for park purposes.
Not all these changes are the same
in nature-but they all point in the
same direction. toward decline OF the
small farm, toward status In which
farming will be done In larger units.
If farming is to be done in larger units,
obviously that means smaller number
of independent owners, larger num-
Der of hired men.
Statistics Bear Out Theory.
That this is the tendency seems borne
out by such statistics as exist. The
following figures picture the decline in
the small unit of farming. For the
purpose of this classification small
farm is defined as one having between
20 and ITS acres. The following figures
give, for the years named, the per-
centage of this type of farm to the
whole number of farms in the country:
1870. .4I.5 per cent
1871. .s.....ss.. 'Ct.O pCA YIN
The same picture Is portrayed in
different way In the following figures.