HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Home and Farm Magazine Section Editorial Page
Suggestions From Our Associate Editors, Allowing For an Interchange of Views, Written by Men of Experience on Topics With
Which They Are Fully Acquainted Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought.
TO ADVERTISERS.
Advertisers In this local-
ity who wish to fully cover $
all sections of Oregon and $
Washington and a portion $
of Idaho will apply to local S
publishers for rates. $
General advertisers may $
address 0. L. Burton, Ad-
vertising Manager of Farm $
Magazine Co., Publishers $
Oregon - Washington - Idaho 3
Farmer, 411 Panama Build- $
ing, Portland, Oregon, for $
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The publishers will accept $
business from no advertiser $
whose reliability can be que $
Uoned.
A WOMAN HOMESTEADER.
ABOUT two years ago Mrs. Mary
M. Younger, a widow, came
west to grow up with the
country. She filed on a homestead
in Wyoming, and, relying upon her
industry, she has shown what a
Western woman of pluck and experi
ence can do.
Mrs. Younger broke 24 acres. Disc
ing the ground, she planted oats. Her
wheat averaged 18 busaels to the
acre on sod, but her oats were a
failure because of bad seed. She also
planted five acres of alfalfa.
From half an acre of rutabagas
'Mrs. Younger harvested two ton
; Half an acre in oabbages yielded
' 1500 pounds. In her garden she
' raised turnips, onions, carrots and
sunflowers. She had plenty of to
matoes for her table and to can for
winter use. Her chickens aro thriv
ing and healthy. One hundred hens
are laying. She raised most of her
own feed for stock, getting 15 bush
els of corn an acre from newly
broken sod.
Mrs. Younger was in danger of
becoming a factor in the unemploy
ment problem, for her needs were
greater than wages could supply.
She came west, but she did not stop
in the cities. She was a woman, and
therefore she wished to be inde
pendent. She is prospering because
of intelligence and hard work. She
is not a member of the army of the
unemployed.
What Mrs. Younger has dono in
Wyoming can be done in Oregon and
- Washington. It is being done in this
; state. Why is it that some men con
stantly permit women to outshine
tbem in initiative and industry!
-4-
GLAD HE BROKE AWAY FROM
THE CITY.
LISTEN to the story of Roland
W. Day, who describes how he
worked at a trade in the city
without getting ahead and how he
and his wife decided finally to make
the break and go to the country. He
has made a success in the country
and writes in part, as follows, about
his enthusiasm for the new life that
ho is enjoying:
"What would I be doing if I wore
in the city working at my trade to
day with two feet of snow on the
level t Sitting by the fire just, the
same as I am doing now, only I am
making dollars today whore there I
Would bo spending them. Would my
Wife go back to the city and live!
Well, I think this is answer enough.
Why should we, when we are happier
than we ever wore before and are
both young and have the best part
' f our lives yet before us,
"This same opportunity is awaiting
all such young men and women who
are not afraid to get out and work
and take advantage of a ' helping
hand when it is offerou and work
on a littlo borrowed capital so long
as they can see their way clear.
"Tlicro is one point that I must
say, that I can stop my team in the
field, or any other place, and light
my pipe, and I never could do that
working for a boss in the city.
"There is one great thing that my
wife and I aro aiming for now, more
than anything elae, and that is, that
when our five-year lease is up on
this farm wo shall be able to move
upon our own. "
WHY FARMERS SHOULD ADVER
TISE IN THE NEWSPAPERS.
AEECENT issue of Farm and
Fireside, the national farm
paper published at Springfield,
Ohio, J. M. Taylor writes a valuable
and interesting article telling farm
ers how to get to the market with
their goods. Mr. Taylor goes on, as
follows, to show how farmers can
use the newspapers:
"The cities are full of people who
want to buy their goods direct, the
country is full of farmers who would
gladly sell direct for the sake of the
additional profits to be gained by
that mode of selling. All that re
mains is for them to get together.
' ' There is no need of an extensive
advertising campaign. AH that is
necessary is a small display adver
tisement in the newspapers of the
nearest large city. And in writing
the ad the farmer should not be
bashful about having his name easily
seen. Let him advertise Smith 's po
tatoes, or Smith 's eabbages, or what
ever Smith has to sell. Do it in a
manner that will leave the impres
sion that Smith is proud of his cab
bages, that he knows them to be up
to standard and that he personally
stands back of them. People will
more readily buy of a man when he
stamps his name on his goods in a
manner whieh shows that he is not
afraid to be known as their sponsor.
Furthermore, it is good business, for
if people buy Smith 's cabbages this
year and find them good they will
clamor for Smith 's cabbages next
year and be satisfied with no
others."
BUMPER CROPS.
FIFTY-SIX million dollars is what
it is estimated the railroads of
this country will got for moving
the record-breaking wheat crop.
It is impossible for any one to get
a full idea of these staggering fig
ures. The only object in quoting the
estimate is to show-why "big crops"
and "prosperity" are words that go
together.
Great as it is, the wheat crop is
not everything this year. From near
ly every section of the country comes
news of bumper yields of nearly all
crops. But moving the wheat is the
big job right now. This means get
ting it from the thresher and dis
tributing it for storage and for mill
ing. It takes brains as well as
money to do this. It takes the farm
er, the banker, the miller, the ex
port man, and, of course, the railroad
man. Somebody must pay for this
vast yield and here is another
place where prosperity comes in.
Good markets join the big crops in
making it complete.
Millions of bushels of wheat will
be made into bread for immediate
consumption. Other millions will be
kept, for seed. The rest will become
a potent force in business affairs of
the country and the world. It is
the same with the other big crops.
Without modern invention, the
reapers and the binders, it would not
have been possible for the United
States to produce the greatest wheat
crpp in the history of the land.
DENATURED ALCOHOL.
IF WE COULD utilize the products
of the farm to their utmost there
would be greater profit in farm
ing. With the price of gasoline go
ing higher because of such universal
use for autos and gas engines it
would mean much to the farmers and
users of engines to have a market
for those products that could be
converted into alcohol.
Hundreds of tons of fruit go to
waste every year because they are
not marketable, and the potato mar
ket is easily overstocked. Many pro
ducts contain alcohol that should be
distilled for mechanical purposes.
But why isn't itf We have a de
natured alcohol law, but the farm
ers are still letting stuff go to waste
instead of trying to make it into
alcohol.
Tho reason why is because the
denatured alcohol law was not made
for farmers. The law ia like the ship
building law made for and by the
very interests that would be hurt
by a real good law. Farmers cannot
make,, their potatoes and fruit into
alcohol under the present law,
henee there is no means of trans
forming these waste products into a
marketable product the world so
much needs at this time.
There aro probably enough waste,
or practically waste, products on the
farms to make into alcohol that
would largely furnish heat, light and
power, at least all the farm needs,
and that would save gasoline for
city needs. But until the law is
changed there will be no attempt
made to conserve this great by
prodntc of farming.
It might be well for the farmers
to ask their congressmen and sena
tors to help fix up a law that would
be workable to the advantage of the
farmers.
$ .
ASK FOR INFORMATION.
HERBERT QUICK, editor of Farm
and Fireside, says that we citi
zens pay our scientist a and ex
perts, but that few of us use them
as we might. There is not a worm,
a bug, a blight, a disease, or a prob
lem of tho soil which is not studied
by these hired men of ours and
about which they are- not anxious to
tell us. Mr. Quiek goes on in part,
as follows:
"At the United States Depart
ment of Agriculture in Washington
almost any question will be answered
by experts free of charge. In such
cases not even a stamp is required
for reply. They will examine dis
eased plants and tell what the rem
edy is, if there is one. . Some one
has Baid that the way to tell a
toadstool from a mushroom is to eat
it if you die it's a toadstool but
these experts will save you the trou
ble of dying, and tell you in case
of doubt, if you will send them the
specimen.
"The number of things an obser
vant farmer especially a young one
wants to know is simply illimit
able. And he can be sure that if
there is an answer it will be sent
him. The country teacher who wants
to ruralize her rural school might
well ask for these problems to be
brought to tho school and sent
thence to the experts. Such a policy
will do much to bring the govern
ment closer to the farms, and to
make the pupils feel that it is really
their government.
PLANTS AS EMIGRANTS.
IT IS often hard to account for the
way in which plants spread from
one country to another, and yet
no such emigration has taken place
but the botanists have been able to
advance some theory to account for
it. In the early seventies of the last
century the scientists in France were
puzzled by finding that many new
plants hitherto unknown in that
country had mysteriously sprung up.
In the summer of 1872 noted botan
ists went carefully to work to find
the cause of this strange emigration,
and they succeeded admirably. They
found no fewer than two hundred
plants jatural to Germany and the
Countries south of her; these plants
were mostly of the grass, pea and
bean tamiljes and were found only in
the territory occupied by the Ger
mans in the siege of Paris. This is
a good example of the strange way
in which plants travel from place to
place.
$ .
WHERE OHIO FARMERS BOB
ROWED $12,000,000.
KV. HAYMAKER of Defiance
a county, Ohio, whose rural cred
it plan for farmers was discussed-
recently in Farm and Fire
sido, has been continuing his investi
gations as to facts, and in a recent
issuo of Farm and Fireside the fol
lowing results aro recorded:
"In the State of Ohio over twelve
million dollars are now out on loan
to farmers from building and loan
associations. This is over sixteen per
cent of all the farm loans in the
atate. Only six counties do not have
these associations, which are virtual
ly farmers' land banks.
"The plan is extremely well de
veloped, is now twenty years old,
and, in Mr. Haymaker's opinion,
needs leadership more than any legia
lation."
,
FARMERS CAN CHOOSE THEXB
NEIGHBORS.
A FARMER is about the only man
who can keep at a distance
from uncongenial neighbors If
he chooses. On general business prin
ciples it is bad poliey to sell the ceo
ter or even a large corner out of
farm for any purpose or for any
figure very much less than the total
value of the farm. If the parties
who wish the land seem desirably
give them a long lease that does not
grant the privilege of subletting. Tha
smaller the piece of land to be di
vided the more rigidly the foregoing
remarks apply. Owners of large
tracts, on the other hand, can ad
vantageously sell of slices to indus
trious farmers to mutual advantage
But no neighbors at all are better
than undesirable ones.
$
NEVER DISAPPOINT CUSTOMER.
A FARMER who plans selling
some of his produce by meant
of the parcel post must start
out with one thing firm In his mind,
and that is not to disappoint a cus
tomer, either in delivery or in the
quality of his goods. The farmer
must remember he is competing witS
the corner grocer and the huckster
in the city whose wares the housa
wife may inspect when she buys.
Buying "sight unseen" by mail it
will take but one or two shipment
of inferior vegetables, fruit or pro
ducts of the poultry yard to drive
the buyer back to the old source of
supply.
"EVEB A BONO 80MEWHEEE."
There it over a song somewhere, my dea
There is ever a something that lingi mi
way; There's the song of the lark whwen the skies)
are clear,
And the song of the throsh whwen the
skies are gray;
The sunshine showers across the grain.
And the blnebird trills in the orchaHl
tree;
And In and oat, when the eaves drip rai
The .swallows are twittering ceaselessly
There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, .(
Be the skies above dark or fair;
There is ever a song that oar hearts mar
hear
There is ever a song somewhere, my dear
There is ever a song somewhere I
There is ever a song somewhere, my dear, '
In the midnight black or the mid day bine
The robia pipes whea the sun is here,
And the cricket chirrups the whole nighj
through ;
The buds may blow and the fruit may grow.
And the autumn leaves drop crisp vA
ere;
Bat whether the son or the rain or the snow.
There is ever a song somewhere, my dead
JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY.
THE WINDING LANE.
The wood-light grows more mellow-dim,
The leaves dance happily,
The rnaset path glows deeper hued
To greet her worthily,
And all the birds in chorus sweat,
Sing, rapturous, insane,
When lassie comes to meet me
Adown the winding Una.
She's sweet as little roses are,
Aa quaint as mignonette.
And shy aa modest pansy buds.
With shower jewels sot,
She's Happineasl And from this worU
I've nothing more to gain
When lassie comes to meet me
Adown the winding lane I
This earth would be a kindlier place,'
If every man eould know
The fragrance of a shady path
Where cool, green grasses grow,
Where, when the sunset hoar cam by,"
And life was sweet and sane,
His singing lassie turned the stile
Adown the winding laoe.
Ethel Hallett Porter, in July Lippia
oott's.
Those who think farming is all fu
should give it a trial. It takes brains,
energy and business judgment to malt,
a auccess on any farm.