Evening star., 1933-03-12
HONORINC DIRT FARMER
CREATES NEW STANDARDS
Master Degree Conferred on Four Men
and Wives by New York for Tillage,
Home-Making, Community Activities.

dresses. with the glow Of health and
dignified poise which Is the inalienable
right of those who have won their own
way in the world.
In reading the citations Gov. Lehman
emphasized the fact that no man can
qualify as master farmer who has
not considered the health, the happi-
ness and opportunities for rich life
for his wife and family.
A new measure Of men has been
found A master farmer must succeed
on three counts: He must be a good
farmer. good citizen and a good
homemaker The points on which he
is tested are: Material success in farm
ing, his contribution to the life OF his
community, and his high standards as
homemaker. To be a master farmer,
then, Is to be master citizen-a sue
ceSsful human being. Other awards
might well be revised according to this
pattern.
There Is a story behind each Of the
citations. One feels hesitant in spot
lighting one Of them, yet space forbids
all. So here is the story of Ralph De
Wolfe:
Reared on farm, he felt the soil and
came back to it as the best place to
live and to raise family. Perhaps
teacher made him a better farmer.
One unusual practice he uses is to take
his hired help into close cooperation
in his farming business. Once a month
all his men-and their wives. If they
are married-are called together for a
"confab' night. There is a free-for-all
discussion and everybody has right
to air his grievances and to make sug-
gestions on ways to improve the farm.
1t has been great success. When Mr..
De Wolfe leaves home he knows that
things go on as usual. He has built up
100 per cent cooperative group.
He started out with milk route. He
bought the farm from the owner Of the
dairy for which he worked. Since then
the milk route has been built up to 400
quarts a day. He runs his farm and
his milk business on a strictly business
basis. Every smallest item is inventoried
and cost records carefully kept. He
has made some interesting experiments
in the feeding of his herds.
But 1t Is on the human side that this
master farmers citation has the great
est interest. He believes in recreation
for his family cooperation in play as
we'll as in work. In the back yard of
his comfortable farmhouse he has built
an outdoor fireplace with rocks from the
place. There is table for picnic meals,
swings for the children, and sand
box. In the Summer friends come for
week ends and make this their gather
ing place. The youngsters sleep out in
tents. Each year the De Wolfe family
takes vacation Of a week or more and
they also sandwich in week end ex-
cursions to places of interest.
Boys and Girl Honored.
II the maturely successful farmers
stirred one as they came before the
Governor to receive their honors, even
more so did five boys and one young
girl who received these medals and
citations. One forgot encouragement
and confusion as one watched them.
Written in the courageous, frank faces
of these youths was the real future OF
America. One thing struck home fore
IDLY. When the elder men spoke before
their Governor, the President-elects
lady, the Cornell University faculty and
that great crowd, their words came a
trife haltingly; they were shy. When
youth spoke it was in clear voice and
with little hesitation and cropping. They
are equipped, one feels; the battle
should be less hard for them, their vic
tories perhaps greater.
The awards to youth are made to
Fourth Club members who show the
best record, to vocational students of
agriculture and to rural Boy Scouts
whose achievements are most worthy.
These are farmers in the making. En-
ory Waterman, one Of the two Boy
Scouts to win an award, has won 81
merit badges. He manages the home
poultry business, comprising 700 hens,
and has charge Of a milk route. George
Turner, one Of the vocational students
of agriculture, takes large part in the
his father has to be away from home a
great deal of the time. He has made
an income of s385.66 from projects of
his own and has built up herd of five
pure-bred Guernseys inventoried at
Ss25.
Some say you can almost tell the farm
Of master farmer when you pass it.
In Cortland County Frank Carter and
his wife have made stony hill farm,
with its once-sour soil, fertile with the
labor of their 40 years. And out of the
very soil they have reared and educated
five sons and two daughters and put
all Of them through college.
In the gathering of farmers at Cor
nell during this years Farm and Home
Week one was conscious that a new
teiHacHG 10 oIhIHls dLnolls FARMERS To-
day. Without yielding any whit in in
dividuality, they are learning to do
things neighbor with neighbor-to CO.
operate on large scale and small. The
sting of necessity is driving them not
to despair but to fresh initiative. The
Master Farmer movement Is helping to
set standards. The sixty or more already
chosen in New York State and the 500
or more through the country have
shown other farmers the points on