HOME AX P FARM MAGAZINE SECTION
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Home and Earm Magazine Section Editorial Page
Suggestions From Our Associate Editors, Allowing for an Interchange of Views, W ritten by Men of Experience on Topics W ith
Which They Are Fully Acquainted—Hints Along Lines of Progressive Farm Thought.
FACTS FOE FARMERS.
HE farmer needs a market.
Otherwise he will farm at a
loss. Every consumer is a mar
ket-maker.
The silo is the farm er’s best
friend.
In the country you keep your
cheek close to the breast of nature.
A cultivator under the shod is
worth two left out in open weather.
Let farming become an abandoned
profession and everything would
stop.
Help to organize rural life and
make the country a better place to
live in.
(rood cultivation not only helps
growing crops but permanently im
proves the soil.
The proper preparation of ground
works wonders in lessened coat of
cultivation.
We can best serve our interests
by giving all possible attention to
marketing.
Production without thought to
marketing is like building elabor
ately on foundation premises that
are not true.
The man that owns the soil on
which he lives is the only man
whose feet do not rest ou shifting
sands.
As tbs season advances, the plow
is the farmer's best friend, but
when the season closes the silo
comes in handy.
The commonly accepted theory
that we are short on production is
wrong. We are short on marketing
information.
Many wealthy corporations and
individuals have been telling tile
farmer how to plow, when they
should have been telling him where
and when to market.
The problem of marketing is the
biggest business proposition of any
age or nation, and one that will de
mand the combined efforts of all
the agencies of civilization to
sol ve.
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BEAUTY VERSUS USE.
a|K K ii could enjoy the spee-
Ig taele of Rome burning. Chil
dren and fools naively would
delight in a conflagration that
would consume for spectacular pur
poses a million tons of coal a week.
.We let the equivalent waste in
horsepower go on at Niagara and
hear it called saving beauty for the
people.
------------* ------------
ELECTRICITY.
7T here in the Northwest we are
setting an example to civiliza
tion.
Farms anywhere within easy
reach of a city or town now can be
lighted, and usually are lighted, by
electricity.
On many farms the hum of the
electric motor is heard.
Sewing
machines are d.iven by electricity.
Silos are filled; water pumped, feed
cut up. It has one hundred and one
uses,
Electricity is so easily controlled
either by the push of a button or by
automatic apparatus especially de
signed for that purpose, that one
oftentimes loses sight of the com
plexity of the distribution system
end control mechanism betweea
the lamp and the source of supply.
Indeed, there are as many at a
thousand pointe between the electric
light station and the lamp where
the moat trivial fault will result ia
failure to reoeive light.
Trouble ia the electric light sta
tion itself is never permitted to in
terfere with the service to sue-
tomers; it is the trouble in the linos
and house circuits whieh causes the
lighting company most concern.
Ia the great majority of easts
there Is only a minute or two of
York betweea no electricity at all
gnd perfect satisfaction. The blow
ing of a fuse will place a house la
#ntirs darkness, yet s nsw fuss caa
be Installed ia s fraction of a m l»
•te.
H ectrie fight companies through-
to t the eeaatry make it s point ta
T
0
remedy these faults as speedily as
possible, and in order that the elec
tric light men may reach the soat
of trouble as-rapidly as possible, ths
companies provide motor cycles for
repair men.
The fact that ono of these men is
ablo to make an average trip and
arrive at the home of a customer
within a few minutes of the time
when the call is telephoned to the
city or town office gives electric
light companies an advantage and
prestige.
It is usual to have the motorcycle
repair corps on tap at any time of
day or night.
This course involve! heavy ex
pense, but the lighting companies
are ore than compensated in satis
fied customers.
~~
;* --i
A HINT FOB US.
M j E HAVE just visited Canada—•
IB Western Canada.
And we are still quite con
tent to make our home in the North
west.
Just the same we found a few
ideas of special interest.
One in particular seemed worth
while.
It gives an idea to our own rail
rpads.
The Canadian Pacifie Railroad
has recently added to its staff a
“ scout,” a man unknown except
to a few officials, whose duty it is
t* travel over the system and dis
cover those employes who are es
pecially worthy of advancement.
Incidentally he will report those
found wanting; but it is significant
that his function primarily is not to
make complaints but to make doubly
sure that fbe deserving are recog
nized.
IJndiiubledfy this is a step in the
right direction.
There is a feeling among rail
road men that advancement is slow
and that merit is not recognized.
Very likely if inen can bo brought
to realize that the display of initia
tive will be appreciated and re
warded their attitude toward their
work will be decidedly changed.
If the scout idea will bring home
to tho employes of the Canadian
Pacific that their interest in the
road will be apreciated and reward
ed, it will help much in raising the
line's efficiency.
Incidentally, when we see the
courtesy and consideration Simms,
our depot master, uses to everyone;
when we see him wrestle with heavy
trunks and bulky express packages,
in between times rushing to the tel
egraph ticker or the telephone;
making up voluminous reports, sell
ing tickets and doing the scores of
duties tho railroad requires him to
do cheerfully and well, we hope a
“ spotter” will come along and
send in a report on Simms that will
give him well-deserved promotion.
FARM LOAN EXAMPLE.
O STATE in the Union has been
the subject of more discussion
as to its financial standing and
prospects than Oklahoma.
Opened to settlement oly 25 years,
it has become one of the wonders
of the nation, but through the pro
cess of development has been com
pelled to utilize a great deal of out-
aide capital.
Most of the people who went to
the state as farmers were poor.
They have built cities and improved
farms and made all the develop
ment of a prosper,me common weslth
and are today standing with a splen
did showing of their accomplish
ments.
The farm loan Field of that state
has seen its ups and downs.
It has gone through a period of
depression when there came a period
of low prices for real estate and aa
overwhelming debt.
Then it has coma to the sucoea»
ful point of today.
Oklahoma la all its central see-
tloa is capable of almost universal
cultivation. Parma cover the land
and ins climate is such as te bring
N
excellent crop production. Cotton
and corn, wheat and oats, alike are
raised, and the stock interests are
among the foremost in the West.
The succoss of this field has mani
fested itself in tho history of in
vestments made through a period
of years. One insurance company
has over $7,000,030 in Oklahoma
farm loans and is increasing its in
vestments in that state. There are
many large loan companies that
handle millions in far loans and
their record is phenomenal for
the slight losses.
Yet interest rate« are strong and
the demand for money is active.
Two elements go into the Okla
homa loan field that make for
strength.
One is the character of the people.
They are among the most energetic
of the West's population. They have
the ability to get the most out of
the soil. The other is the elimatie
and soil conditions that bring good
crops and in almost every year give
the fanners a profit.
Labor is cheap, many negroes be
ing available for help. The warm
winters make the expense of fuel
and clothing lighter than up North
and the long seasons give a chanee
to diversify crops.
Laud values have steadily risen
all through tho state, until they are
today standing at a figure that is
likely to remain. Yet there is no
boom value. That has long ago
been squeezed out and the laud is
on au income basis.
In tbs eastern half of the state
is what was, until five years ago,
the Indian Territory. Hero the In
dian rights are to be considered, but
they are rapidly becoming available
for the owner, and the whites are
taking the place of the redskin.
Fine towns are growing up and
schools and churches are being built.
'The loan companies are making
loans here less extensively than in
the central section, but they will
eventually make this one of their
leading fields.
The Oklahoma farm loan is well
established among careful investors
and is gaining prominence as ths
state comes to a fuller prosperity.
The present season promises to bs
one of the beat in tho sta te’s his
tory, and with a good wheat crop,
it will have a marvelously prosper
ous year. There is all tho time an
increasing population.
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CARING FOR ANIMALS.
Their anxiety is to preserve aa '
many hogs as possible for the con
sumption of humanity.
Ths feelings of the hog are no*
considered.
Anthrax, cholera, pleuro pneu
monia, glanders, tick, fever and
tuberculosis among our food, and
working animals play a decided
part in tho cost of living.
When hog cholera is conquered we
may look confidently for a drop it»
the price of pork because the farmer
will bs able to sell hogs at less
money and make more money.
Protecting the health of animals
upon which we are dependent is
one of the certain methods of benevi
fitting humanity, and the Uockefel
ler gift will be certainly justifies
even If its benefits never become
generally known.
1!
PHILOSOPHY FROM A
JAILER.
QHN L. Whitman, jailer of the
Cook county jail, Chicago, re
cently made a speech to hie
guards and keepers.
“ Although jailer, I can accom
plish little without the united as
sistance of all my guards; they are
just, as necessary to the success of
my ideas In the management of this
jail as my own acts. . . ,
“ Always keep in mind that kind
ness is the key to all human hearts,
and sympathy the password to good
fellowship. Men imprisoned here
are human, and are entitled to uv»
ery consideration they can eonsisU
ently receive at our banda. Never
strike a blow, never abuse an in
mate. Rather give a kind word, a
little sympathy, and tho necessity
for harsh treatment will soon van
ish. Get the men to believe that
you are their friends and not their
natural enemies, and that you ars
here merely to do a plain duty as
kindly as it can be dona. When
you will have done this you will
havo done everything.”
Strikes us some of Whitman’s
ideas might work handling farm
hands, store help and employes
generally.
That about kindness would be
worth trying at home.
J
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PUT IN A SEPTIC TANK.
O FARM where the use of a
septic tank is possible should
be without one,” says Professor O.
L. Waller, vice president of the
Washington Stats College at Pull
man.
Farm sanitation is an important
subject.
What is worth mors to you thaa
health!
- A septic tank is a simple and cS
fective Ranitary device.
Put one in.
Any of the agricultural collegea
in the Pacific Northwest will tell
you how.
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N
S A PEOPLE we are somewhat
__ i short sighted.
There has just been a capital
example of this.
John D. Rockefeller has given an
other million dollars for the study
of diseases in animals.
Now, we don’t particularly admire
Mr. Rockefeller as a man but that
is no cause for the flippant and
even bitter comment his action has
aroused.
Critics profess to see more reason
LOT of farmer boys go to the
for the million in other quarters.
city looking for trouble and
They say that human diseases
when they find it ’hey do not kno<
should be eliminated before the ills
what te do with it,
of the lower creatures are taken into
consideration.
I
Anything that Mr. Rockefeller
HE
farmer
who
takes
crop
rai»
does ia, of course, a fair mark for
ing on faith gals many a hard
those wlio are not enamored of him
j(d t
,
or impressed with his munifiecnsa
— ■ ■■ ♦
«
Our inalienable right to kick at
For Uniform Road Lawn
all times is granted withoot argu
m ent
Through the eo <>peratloa of fkt
But It would seem that in the con
America* Bar Assoeiatloa and thf
sideration of this particular dona
American Highway Association thf
tion a certain amount of Inteilb
work of revising ths road laws ia dt*
gencs might be manifested.
farsnt states has been undertaken w it)
Many people ineorreetly assume
the object of codifying and sim plify
that lavish governmental and state
ing them on a uniform bam*. Many nJ
appropriations for ths prevention
the road laws art a easttory old, based
of disease among animals art based
oa colonial legislation and followliig
on pity for the animals.
English precedent and art entirely on)
Of course, the practical fanner
of use in modern traffle end eon d ltio^
knows this Is rubbish.
Because of these olwolote laws u |g
By being careful over our animsds
Impossible to give the nation a net
we are acting purely selfishly.
work of improved highway^ so a ehangg
Mr. Rockefeller is not bowed with
mart be mad«. The committee will urge
grief over the »of/«rings of tbs hoy
upon the governors of the various strtm
with cholera.
the necessity for legislative actioa
Nor ar* oar agricultural oollsgag I vW p/undg a plan i n snsh prosed w *
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