The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-03-16
SURVEY SHOWS
BIG MOVEMENT
BACK TO FARMS
Thousands of Unemployed
Living in Abandoned
Rural Homes.
BBUnifcd Press

Ri United Press
CHICAGO, March Is. - Smoke
curling from the chimneys Of farm
houses untenanted for years signals
a mid-Western back to-the- Land
movement. a United Press survey
showed today.
Boys and girls who packed oheil
grips and set out years ago from
homes in the farm belt to find fame
and fortune in the city are trudging
back 10 the old homesteads.
Thousands of unemployed have
taken their families TO abandoned
huts in the rural sections where gar
den plots offer the necessities oil
life for the mere filling of the soil
With the general town-to-coun-
try exodus, the survey showed that
country folk are reyerting to their
former independence. Country
"e4cIables" and schoolhouse "boS
suppers" again are the order of the
farm family's life instead of NOV
ing pictures and dance halls in the
nearest metropolitan center.
Seek to Raise Own Food
State by state, the trend back to
the soil was:
, Oklahoma-Harry S. CordeT
president Of the state board OF
agriculture, estimates that the farm
population has increased 75,0OC
since the 1880 census. Most of the
new farmers aspire TO raise enough
food for their own use only.
Illinois-Many farm homes now
are housing two or three families
according to w. H. Mclaughlin
director of the state department of
agriculture. The back-to- the-soil
movement accounted for 100000 60
ing to the country in 1890, and Nc
Laughlin estimated the number for
the succeeding years has been about
the same.
Indiana-E j. Barker, secretary
of the state board Of agriculture,
believes that there has been no
rural influx. The idea, he said, is
mostly talk.
Soldiers in Movement
Missouri-The back to the farm
movement is motivated by the de-
sire for subsistence and not for eco
nomic gain" said Professor Conrad
H. Hammer of the Missouri college
of agriculture. Leaders expects to
have 10000 ex-soldiers on a self
sustaining basis by fall.
Michigan-The farm population
has increased about per cent in
the last three years and the state
department of agriculture estimated
that the increase is continuing. The
rural population now is 789, 500 COM
pared with 775436 in 1890.
Ohio-Vacant farm dwellings
have descreased from 20 to 5 per
cent. Rural schools report sub
stantial increase in attendance
without any increase in tax rev.
enue. In addition to increase in
farm population through exodus
from cities the problem is further
complicated by the hesitancy of
farm youths to leave the parental
roof.
Texas-Seventy per cent OF the
unemployed questioned in Dallas
expressed the desire to go on to a
farm. j. B. Macdonald, secretary
of agriculture, described the trend
toward farms as greater than in
years past"
Take Over Abandoned Villages
Wisconsin - Unemployed city
workers virtually have taken over
several abandoned lumber villages
in northern Wisconsin. Most OF
the influx in the rural population
is consuming all the extra produce
and hence there is no problem Of
additional surplus
ADMINISTRATIVE collar" work
erS outnumbered industrial unem-
ployed among the hundreds seeking
farm hOmefi in the opinion OF
George H. Bradley, tourist com
missioner. Many seek land with
timber to provide fuel so the settler
can be entirely self-suStaining.
Iowa-many retired farmers are
moving back to the land they left
several years ago intending to spend
the declining years of their life in
the city.