The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, September 19, 1921, Page 9

. Spending Millions to Play at Farming ~ The New Breed of Farmers in the Old Agricultural Districts of the East— - Does the West Want That Kind Here? BY E. A. KIRKPATRICK Mr. Kirkpatrick is a contributor to various farm papers. };‘e lives in the East and is a student of farm problems there. NEW race of “farmers” has sprung up in the old agricultural districts back East, where manufacturing long gince has overshadowed in importance the pursuits of the soil. A picture of this new breed of “farmer,” who “farms” tremendous areas adjacent to the manu- facturing towns, may perhaps be interesting to western producers, where agriculture is still the most important industry. It may be interesting to the people of the West to familiarize themselves with this new kind of eastern “farmer,” for he is - a symbol of an evil development. It may be worth while to inquire whether the West will ever see this new “farmer” established in large numbers, and whether the West wants him to crowd out the kind ~ of farmers it now has. Who is this new eastern “farmer”" is a picture of him: He “farms,” let us say, near some factory town in the New England states. You can ride for miles, as I have done, through Massachusetts, Connecti- cut and Rhode Island and parts of New Jersey and New York and never see anything but the “farms” owned by this new kind of “tiller of the soil.” His “farm” is a wonderful place. The best land is given over to lawn, drives and occasionally tennis courts and golf links. The house is a palace, designed by the highest-priced architects, and the barns are no less. You will find tea rooms, pergolas, arbors, sunken gardens and pools scattered about the place. Nothing could be more beautiful than this farm. It - is an ornament to the landscape, and its owner is very proud of it. Once a week, for the week-end—sometimes more frequently—the “farmer” is driven out to his farm from the city, to do his “farming.” He gives or- ders to his superintendent, who gives orders to his foreman, who gives orders to his bosses, who gives orders to the laborers, who do the work. The “farm” is stocked with several varieties of the best blooded cattle. Thoroughbred horses are kept. The raising of fancy dogs occupies a large part of the time of this “farmer.” All the standard crops are grown, of course, but not very much land is de- voted to the mere production of foodstuffs. LOSS ON THESE “FARMS” REACHES GREAT FIGURE The “farmer” himself in one respect is much like western farmers at the present time. Once or twice a year, maybe oftener, he figures up his ac- counts to find out what he has lost, for the “farm” never makes anything, The loss may be $50,000 a year, pe-haps it is $150,000, but this new kind of “farmer,” unlike his western “brother,” does not worry a.out the loss. He knows every year in ad- vance that there will be a-loss and about what it will be. ably suspected—that this “farmer” farms only for Luxury for the fine, purebred cattle in the barnyard of a “farm” in the East. This “bossy” is not expected to make any money for the millionaire owner of the farm. She has an ornamental brick water trough with.a piece of sculp- ture on it. Note the arbor in place of an ordinary barnyard fence. " 'Well, here . For you must now know what you prob- - fun. He makes his money, including enough to pay these tremendous “farm?” losses, in such “side- lines” as manufactur- ing, the brokerage business, railroading or something else. There may be a few of this sort of farmer out West. But they dot the landscape thickly in the old agricultural districts of the East. While they have been flourishing, the kind . of farmer we know in the - West has become fewer, and is getting fewer still. Real farm- ing is now a minor oc- cupation over vast dis- tricts in the North At- " lantic states which once boasted a sturdy stock of working, producing yoe- men, the pride and boast of our civilization—the “backbone of the nation,” according to the politi- cians. There are still left many of the old stock of farmers. They still have a precarious hold on the land, and they do really farm and produce; some, of course, make a fair or good living. Lately they have been getting, in larger numbers, into co-opera- tive associations, and are waking up to the neces- sity of united farmer political action. Large num- bers of them, however, “went West” years ago. Others got into other lines of endeavor;.some who Mr. Kirkpatrick in this article gives food for thought for persoms who do not see any need of preventing indus- . try overshadowing and eventually driv- ing out agriculture. What would hap- pen if the West followed the develop- ment that has taken place in the East? We would become a non-self-supporting people. stiil hold the old family land take in summer city boarders to make both ends meet. But the fact remains that in these eastern states industry and, commerce as occupations have driven out, or are driving out, the real farmers. If the transconti- nental railroad lines to the West were torn up, the teeming millions of these states would starve. They are no longer self-supporting. In a recent trip through the “eastern coast states my attention was called to farms for sale. The reasons given by those who want- ed to give up the land were enlighten- ing. Many wanted to sell “because not able to get help,” which means that the cities have attracted the population which used to live by the land. Others gave “other business” as the rea- son for wanting to sell, which means they had found occu- patjons in town more profitable. I saw an- nouncements of sales where “old age” was given as the reason, which means the younger _ generation had goné to_the city and left the “old PAGE TEN ~ _ crowd out the agricultural pursuits? ,pletely overshadow farming. . ticle. -of congress said recently. man” to fight it out An eastern “farm” mansion, costing probably $50,000 to $75,0060 to build. The “farmer” who owns it spends a day or so a week in this palace in the summer. alone, and he couldn’t hold on. Also, the land is “wearing out,” which means simply that farmers have not made enough to pay for keeping up the fertility by approved methods. The development of manufacturing, commerce and trade is not a bad thing. It is a good thing. No people should resist, but should encourage that kind of development. But should it be allowed to - Is the one- sided, top-heavy development of other industries at the expense of agriculture wise? And do we want the same thing to happen in the West? If it does, where will we get our food? Can any nation be great and continue prosperous if it allows the busi- ness of farmmg to become unprofitable and to die out? That is the question. Right now the West finds a big market for 1ts food products by reason of the gradual abandon- ment of farming in the East. But are not the same conditions and influences undermmmg farm- ing in the West? Unless somethmg is done ‘wiil not the West some day be in the situation of the East? That is the question. HOPE OF THE COUNTRY RESTS WITH FARMERS OF THE WEST What has caused farming, in once proud and prosperous agricultural districts .of the East, to become either a rich man’s hobby or a minor, or, in some places, extinct business? A detailed analysis of the question would take a volume, but the reasons can be summarized in a sentence. With. the growth of industry farming became an unprof- itable and unsafe business. v It follows that any move that makes for better conditions in agriculture, that makes farming a safer and more profitable occupation, is a move to - prevent the arrival of a time, in the still favor- able agricultural states, when industry will com- I take it that the West does not want to become acquainted on a large scale with the new breed of “gentleman farmer,” with whose description I started this ar- He is a symbol of the decline of agriculture. His estates, it is true, are beautiful and wonder- ful to visit, but a dozen of these big business plutocrats with their lackeys occupy land which . . formerly supported an independent, happy and self-supporting farming population of hundreds. Which does the West want on its land ? “All histdry has emphasized that the downfall of every bygone civilization and nation was preced- ed by the breakdown of its agriculture,” a member True, every word of it! It is to the farmers of the West that we of the East look for the thinking and the energy and the organization that will cause the development of the rest of our country on saner and sounder lines than have governed in the East. The West has given birth to new ideas in politics and economics,. because the western farmer is young, enthusiastic and is thinking. It is the West that gives us our “farmer blocs” in congress and that is forcing the attention of statesmen to agriculture’s needs. More power to t}le western farmer!