HOME AND FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
Editorial Page Home and Farm Magazine Section
4
TO ADVERTISERS
Advertisers in this locality who wish
fully to cover all sections of Oregon
and Washington and a portion of Idaho
will apply to local publishers for rates.
General advertisers may address C. L.
Burton, Advertising Manager Home
and Farm Magazine Section, Oregonian
Building, Portland, Oregon, for rates
and information.
TO READERS
Readers are requested to send letters
and articles for publication to The Edi
tor, Home and Farm Magazine Section,
Oregonian Building, Portland, Oregon.
Discussions on questions and prob
lems that bear directly on the agricul
tural, livestock and poultry interests of
the Northwest and on the uplift and
comfort of the farm home always are
welcomed. No letters treating of re
ligion, politics or the European war are
solicited. We proclaim neutrality on
these matters.
Comparatively brief contributions
are preferred to long ones. Send us
also photographs of your livestock and
farm scenes that you think would be
of general interest We wish to make
this magazine of value to you. Help
us to do it
LAND BANKS.
THE United States of America,
with all her boasted civiliza
tion and financial superiority,
cannot boast of land banks nor
Governmental supervision of lands
and land sales, as do a great many
foreign countries. There is a wide
spread agitation throughout the
entire country in favor of land
banks and legislation that will per
mit the organization of such, no
doubt, is an assured fact in the
near future.
There is perhaps no one bit of
legislation contemplated that carries
with it as much importance to the
future upbuilding of the land.
Every commercial line has arrange
ments for proper financing and there
is scarcely a business that does not
need the assistance and financing of
banks. The farmer is the- most im
portant factor in the ultimate
growth of any country, yet we are
stumbling blindly in the dark and
the farmer is compelled to finance
himself in whatever way he can.
Governor Glynn, of New York,
has recommended to the legislature
at the last two sessions that it pass
a land bank law that would provide
for the proper financing of legiti
mate farming. We hope the day is
not far distant when Oregon, Wash
ington and Idaho will have a land
bank law on their statute books.
The editor of the Farm and Home
Magazine would be glad to hear
from every farmer in the Pacific
Northwest who has any ideas along
these lines.
farmer for the high cost of bread.
Others blame the grain dealers.
And yet British bread, made from
wheat grown by American farmers
and sold by American grain dealers,
sells for less in war harassed Eng
land than does American bread made
j'rom the same wheat and sold in
peaceful America.
What is the cause for the high
price of bread in this country?
Figure it out for yourselves.
HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW?
THE farmer, as a rule, knows
how to farm; he also knows
how many times it takes going
over the ground to get it ready for
the crop and at what cost; he knows
that he wants clean and good seed ;
he knows what it costs him to put
this produce on the market.
Yes, many farmers know all this.
Those who show that they know it,
also show evidences of prosperity.
And the prosperous farmer in turn
is the one who profits by what is
done on experimental or demonstra
tion farms; he also is the one who
sends his sons or his daughters to
agricultural colleges and schools.
It is not so much what any man
knows that counts. He must also
make his knowledge shine forth in
his work so that those who run may
read and profit. In farming there
are some who keep records to ascer
tain how much it costs to produce a
given commodity but there are
many who do not. Practically every
man who tills the soil knows that for
maximum returns he should have
clean and good seed but how many
can say that their fields are clean?
Agricultural colleges, agricultural
schools, experimental farms, demon
stration farms and all such institu
tions will not appeal to the man who
thinks he knows all there is to know
in agriculture.
However, those who know most
usually, appreciate the fact that
there still is much to learn. They,
therefore, pay attention to what
others are doing and take advantage
of every possible source of information.
A SIDELIGHT ON BREAD.
SOME interesting sidelights on
that ever-present problem of
the high cost of living are to
be found in the items of war news
which filter through the European
news censor bureaus to this coun
try. One which recently made its
way here from Great Britain is
especially illuminating.
Wheat in London is selling around
a dollar and ninety cents a bushel,
and yet bread there is still cheaper
by the pound than it is in this coun
try. In our large cities, such as Chi
cago and New York, the major por
tion of the bread sold is made and
baked by special machinery, a more
efficient and economic method than
is used anywhere in Europe.
t. Many people t here blame the
A LIFE PHILOSOPHY IN SEVEN
WORDS.'
SOME men who attain old age
in good health and high spirits
like to offer advice to the
young. "Go thou and do likewise,"
they say in effect, "by doing as I
have done." "As I have done" may
mean total abstention from intoxi
cating beverages or a regular though
moderate indulgence therein; giv
ing the lifelong admantine stare to
the soothing if seductive Goddess
Ni'cotine, or flirting unashamed with
the weed-born deity; sleeping eight
hours a day, eating regularly, work
ing steadily.
John Burroughs, best beloved of
living American writers, had a birth
day recently, his seventy-eighth.
Burroughs lives up in the Rip Van
Winkle country, but he has been
awake all his seventy-eight years
and has lived every day of his life
with eyes wide open and face to the
front. Though for many years past
he has lived "much to himself," as
the phrase goes, he has not lived al
together to himself. What he has
lived in his ever-youthful heart and
seen with his unaging eyes he has
put in books which have carried his
kindly life and high vision into the
lives of others.
Somebody asked John Burroughs
for a bit of birthday advice. There
must have been a merry twinkle in
his eyes when he replied :
"Keep cheerful and mind your
own business."
. Those few simple words cover the
life-philosophy of a man who has
kept himself young almost four
score years. The philosophy of
John Burroughs, of "Slabsides,"
may not be Bergsonian, nor
Nietszchian, nor even William Jame
siensian, but it is recommended to
any man or woman who is seeking a
saving creed of conduct, both as to
spirit and to deed. Is anything
more conducive to long life and hap
piness than just keeping cheerful
and minding your own business?
VALUE OF OPTIMISM.
AN OPTIMIST has been .de
scribed as a man who can
make lemonade out of the
"lemons" which are handed him.
He is a man who remains cheerful,
hopeful and courageous in the midst
of many setbacks which fate may
bring to him.
The spirit of optimism is a very
valuable asset to anyone. The pes
simist is discouraged when he en
counters difficultips or setbacks; he
quits and tries something else. The
optimist looks back over the history
of his previous actions in the hope
of finding out wherein he was at
fault, where he himself was to blame
in such a way as to at least help
bring these troubles on himself.
Thereby he strengthens himself
for meeting similar difficulties in the
future. His failures and difficulties
are the very material out of which
he builds up his future success. He
snatches difficulty out of defeat. He
is an asset to his community and to
his country.
Right now is the time for the op
timists among livestock breeders to
make lemonade out of the lemons
which have been handed them by
the foot and mouth plague. The pes
simist, will quit raising livestock.
But the optimist will go ahead with
greater care and precaution than he
ever used before. He will continue
his breeding, but with greater care.
The dropping out of the business of
the pessimists, coupled with the in
creased demand for our livestock,
will give him a greater market than
he has ever had before for his ani
mals ; so that he should make great
er money from his activities in fu
ture years than he has in the past.
Grit your teeth and become an
optimist.
"LOST WITH ALL ON BOARD"
fr HE sinking of the Prins
I Maurits off the Virginia Coast,
apparently with the loss of all
on board fifty human beings and
the sinking of the seagoing tug
Luckenback, with fifteen victims,
may well be held to indicate the
limitations of the wireless in a
blinding storm. The call for help
comes all right; it is responded to
without delay, but the finding of the
imperiled vessel is most difficult,
and it is precisely in such a storm
that sinking is liable to be very
quick, as in the case of these two
vessels.
Of the Luckenback's crew two
men were nved, washed ashore with
the wreckage. They can tell some
thing of the tug. The story of the
liner Maurits may never be told. So
far as known there are no survivors.
The double tragedy, with sixty-five
dead, would have impressed all our
minds more strongly a year ago.
The habit of reading of a thousand
killed here, or ten thousand killed
there, in Europe's great war, tends
to callous our sensibilities.
The ocean is yet untamed. Those
who go down to the sea in ships are
still taking chances. Science has
done much' to minimize risks. It will
do more. Nevertheless, shipwrecks
will claim their toll for myriad years
to come. Man's" ingenuity has al
ways its limitations.
MANURE OUT OF PLACE.
A PERSON traveling in the
Northwest, having the pleas
L ure of visiting the barnyards
of prominent fanners, will be sur
prised to find that the manure is
kept where it should not be. The
more necessity there is for its be
ing out on the plowed land the more
it seems the farmer insists on keep
ing it in the barnyard. -
In the mountain country where,
because of decayed timber and other
growths, ther 's a large amount of
organic matter in the soil, the ne
cessity for manure on the land is
not so imperative. But out in the
short grass country, where the soil
has not been made rich by thou
sands of years of fine growths of
grass which has decayed and been
incorporated in the soil, there is
very urgent need of the manure, be
ing used. r And from our observa
tion the more urgent the need the
more extensive the neglect.
Get all the manure out on the
land you can this Spring before the
land is plowed. Disc it in, then turn
the soil over, put more manure on
and disc that in. In the short grass
country, in the sections where the
soil is more o- less gumbo in char
acter, on any fann where the soil
is close and compact, organic matter
is needed above all tilings. And the
farmer should get it into his soil as
quickly as he can.
Don't let the manure pile up
around the buildings. It is doing no
good there, get it out on your land.
Get it out now. It is of value to
you, give it a chance to make money
' for you.
A FRAGMENTARY COST.
JULES MELAT, a multi-millionaire
of Belgium, owned a mag
nificent factory for making
cream separators within three, miles
of the fort of Liege and shared
profits on a co-operative plan with
8000 employes. The place was as
spick and span as a parlor, the win
dows always clean and bright, and
everybody working happily.
One fatal day in August, when the
Huns were at the gate, the crash
came, the great factory was wiped
off the map by the great Krupp
guns and every last vestige of the
man's fortune was destroyed in an
hour. The most of his men were
killed in battle, while the old man
was turned upon the world an exiled
pauper and this is only a fragment
of the cost of war. . '
An Eastern syndicate is to pub
lish a periodical page of Chauncetf
Depew's jokes. And we will have an
abundance of chestnuts that the
frost can never affect.
Electricity costs too much, says
an expert. But so do other current
expenses. .
"Austria Failed in Her Assign
ment in the War." Headline, like
pome war correspondents, - '