I
VOL. LXIX
lWANAPOLIS, JAN. 24, 1914
NO. 4
Factors in Country Life Betterment
Sixty farmers in this country out of
every hundred own their farms. This
does not mean by any means that sixty
farmers out of every hundred own
their farms free from debt. In Denmark eighty-nine farmers, out of every
hundred own their farms. Land tenancy is on the decrease very rapidly in
both Denmark and Ireland. Land tenancy In this country is rapidly on the
increase. According to the last census
mortgaged indebtedness on farms is on
the increase. The price of land is also
increasing. Production per capita is
decreasing. Soil fertility is on the
down-grade. With the eight billion
dollar crop that we grew in 1910 we
used six billions of borrowed money to
do it with on which we paid, counting
interest, commission, transfers etc., an
average rate of 8 % per cent. It requires from six to ten times as much to
equip a farm for successful operation
now as it required forty years ago when
farm labor was cheap and plentiful.
The enormous price that it costs to live
is due chiefly to under-production and
cost of marketing. With this situation staring us in the face, is it any
wonder that our country has become
alarmed and every interest in the nation looking toward the betterment of
the  agricultural  industry?
The city has been calling upon the
farm not only for its crops of grain
and livestock, but for its best types of
young womanhood and manhood, leaving those who are perhaps less qualified to cope with the very fundamentals
of our American civilization. Our system of education has caused this drain
of these highly competent people from
the farms. When it is evident to every
thinking man that our greatest intelligence should be kept where it can cope
with the problems of production, because this is our greatest essential to
civilization.
The world is recognizing the fact
that tenancy in any form is a menace
to agriculture, and as a result nearly
every civilized nation is taking steps to
counteract this condition.
Problems Requiring Solution.
It is primarily the object of this discussion to consider the matter of the
Farm Adviser, County Agent, or Farm
Demonstrator as he is variously called.
In the flrst place this man must be one
who by his service and tact can overcome the prejudice against him, as the.
same prejudice has been observed in
every new idea that life experiences.
Not all of these new ideas that
have been promulgated have been
helpful but the most of them
have. These ideas are objected to not
because they are new but because they
are not understood. It is a matter of
history that in Boston and New York
when some people of moderate means
reached the conclusion that the public
should pay for educating their children
and meetings were called for the pur-
Pose of considering these things that
'he aristocracy rose up against the
movement, broke up the meetings, had
the leaders arrested and placed in jail.
We can all no doubt remember the ob-
Address by S. M. Jordan, of Pettis County, Missouri,
the First County Agent, on His Pioneer Work.
jections that were made to the self-
binder and the church organ. All over
the country objections were made to
postal savings banks when their inauguration was contemplated and actually at this time we find people who raise
objections to the automobile and good
roads. Many of us objected to the rural mail, believing that the plan would
hands full and we who are on the job
are discovering very rapidly that the
farmers all over the country are lining up and our good helpers just as
they have on every other proposition
when a full understanding has been
reached.
The   Farm   Adviser  cannot solve  all
the farm problems for at least one rea-
bankrupt the nation. We can no doubt
remember when folks would not permit
telephone poles to be set past their
places and others "would not have the
thing in my house, if you would give
me a hundred dollars!" We also remember how the parcel post was going to ruin every small town in the
country, and how the bicycle, thi auto-
m bile and the street car were going to
ruin the horse and mule business, and
right at this time we are having to cope
with the kick on the farm adviser and
the currency bill.
The men who are pioneering in this
business    are    certainly    having    their
son that all the farm problems never
will be solved. So long as man thinks
we will continue to improve and it
takes time to disseminate new ideas.
A few of the items that we have met
in our work in Pettis county would no
doubt be of interest. Only a few days
ago I was making a trip through the
community with a friend and he said
that he had to stop at a neighbor's a
few minutes but he assured me that
the neighbor would do me no violence
even though he had no faith in me or
my kind. After a few minutes the
man asked me if I thought he had any
ground suitable for growing alfalfa.    I
Smith Hall, the New Dairy Building at Purdue University.
told him candidly that I was rather
afraid he did not as his soil was a little
too much depleted to make It a success
such as one would desire. I made an
examination however of his subsoil and
the test for acid, and the examination
gave me still further confirmation that
what I had told him in the beginning
was right. He asked me if I was an
orchard doctor. I told him that I am
not much of one but if he had some
orchard troubles that I might possibly
help him, and on the way to the orchard he told me that the trees seemed
to be dying on one side. That gave me
a tip as to what his trouble was and
as we approached the orchard I pointed to one tree and told him what the
disease was. I took my knife and cut
around a piece of bark that to him
looked to be alive and a piece about
four inches wide and twelve inches in
length  dropped  off the tree.
Farm   Problems   Solved.
! ixplained his trouble and how it
might be prevented, and pointed to another tree and told him that that had
died from a different cause; that the
tree leafed out nicely in the spring and
looked thrifty but from the time it was
attacked it was perhaps dead in sixty
days. I gave him instructions as to
what to do in each case and as I went
away from him I observed a very different attitude from that which he had
assumed when we drove Into the place.
Another man called me by and told
me he wanted me to look at his orchard as he had cultivated the ground
and had sprayed the trees but nothing
seemed to do any good and the tcees
were' dying. This was last spring, I
discovered that not a tree in the orchard could possibly live through the
summer. Tree canker had gotten in
its work, the trees no doubt being diseased when he set them out, and that
was just a little information he might
have discovered when he bought them,
but he lost the use of the land for eight
years; he lost his labor for eight years,
and at the end of the time the disappointment must have been very keen
when he must destroy the orchard.
Handling the Seed Question.
I had many calls in the early part of
my work visiting corn fields where
trouble had been encountered. I
found that the greatest amount of
trouble was due to corn root lice. Of
course the question always comes—
"What can I do"? For fighting insect
pests we have made a very vigorous
campaign and think that we have accomplished a great deal of good. We
are doing all that we can to give information about the life history of some'
of our insect pests and when that is understood we can intelligently combat
them.
I found on doming to this county that
the grass seeds were more or less inferior in quality, many of them badly
infested with noxious weeds. I discovered that the average farmer had
no idea what buckhorn seed looks like,
neither did they kn«w the seed of
bracked plantain, sour dock, red-top
sorrel   nor  dodder,  yet    some of these