Economic and Social Tendencies
Growth of the Farm Bureau
No greater laboratory exists for scientific farming than in this western
country. A Farm Bureau, popularized through county agents, is an asset of
prime significance to a region that will endow the rest of the country
with the fruits of its development. Hughes, in 1915, was the first of the
four counties to organize a Farm Bureau. Sheridan and Union followed in
1919. Beaverhead County has no Farm Bureau. A County Farm Agent was
employed for eight months in 1918, but did not have the support of the
ranchers. They felt that an agent, in a stock raising county like
Beaverhead where hay flourished without cultivation, was a needless
expense. As one rancher remarked, "We did not want some one who knew less
about our business than we did." As an index to the success attending
expert farm advice, one entire community in Beaverhead attempted and
abandoned dry farming, whereas in other counties where Farm Bureaus and
agents have given service and advice no entire community has failed so
completely.
The Farm Bureaus not only improve agricultural methods, but are creating
local leaders and a community spirit. The Farm Bureau offers a definite
program that is rewarding if adopted. It develops in the individual
community a spirit of independence and self-respect which must precede
cooeperation. The Sheridan Farm Bureau records a typical objective: "to
promote the development of the most profitable and permanent system of
agriculture; the most wholesome and satisfactory living conditions; the
highest ideals in home and community life, and a genuine interest in the
farm business and rural life on the part of the boys and girls and young
people.... There shall be a definite program of work ... based on the
results of a careful study of the problems of the county. It shall be
formulated and carried out by the members of the organization, with the
assistance of their agents and specialists as may be available from the
State Agricultural College."
Each Farm Bureau has county leaders or a board of directors, each member
specializing in and promoting some particular project, as poultry, cattle,
marketing of grain, dairying, roads, child welfare, clothing, food and
county fair. During 1919-1920 forty-three Farm Bureau meetings were held
in Sheridan County, with a total attendance of 1,321. Twenty extension
schools or courses were given with a total attendance of 261. Two
community fairs were held, and six communities put on recreation programs.
The Farm Bureau upheld Governor Carey's announcement of Good Roads Day by
donating $3,300 worth of work on the roads. Seventeen communities were
organized; twelve have community committees. Nothing can better create
community spirit and enlist cooeperation.
[Illustration: A FARM BUREAU DEMONSTRATION
The County Agent for Sheridan is making grasshopper poison.]
Each community also adopts a program of work of its own under the
leadership of the community committee. A community program for Union
County, which is inaccessible to the railroad, is as follows:
Program of Work Goal for 1921 Accomplishments Work Still To Be
to Date Done
Poultry Market eggs Letters written Prices not sufficient
for markets to warrant shipping
as yet
Livestock Organize pig Two talks
club Two leaders
Organize calf secured
club
Home beautifi- Plant trees, Planted
cation vines and
shrubbery
Road Fix bad Secured county Keep at it
places aid. Got
bridge
Rodent Rodent poison 11 poisoned Eradication
demonstration
Coyote "Kill 'em" Nine put out Complete it
coyote poison
and killed 48
coyotes
[Illustration: A HOME DEMONSTRATION AGENT
Here is a Woman's Club at an all-day meeting in Union County receiving
instructions in the workings of an iceless refrigerator.]
The Farm Bureau works with the County Agents, the Home Demonstration
Agents, and the Boys' and Girls' Club leaders, wherever such agents exist.
The County Agents are giving themselves whole-heartedly to their jobs, and
the demands for their services keep them busy driving through counties for
purposes of demonstration or organization. The Hughes County agent reports
the following schedule: fifty days on animal disease, thirty-seven and
one-half days on boys' and girls' club work, thirty-seven days on
organization, twenty-three days on marketing and 116 days on miscellaneous
work.
Sheridan and Union have Home Demonstration agents, energetic women, who go
out over the county organizing groups of women and giving demonstrations
and talks. Some of their achievements in Sheridan County may be cited.
Hot lunches were established in six rural schools in cooeperation with the
Public Health Nurse; some phase of health work was carried on in four
communities and in Sheridan City schools a clothing school was held; 200
women were taught the Cold Pack method of canning; four home convenience
demonstrations were given; five pressure cookers were purchased;
twenty-five flocks were culled; twelve American cheese demonstrations were
given, and 500 pounds of cheese made.
Boys' and girls' club work is carried on in every county except
Beaverhead. The boys and girls all over the county are organized into
clubs and work on various kinds of projects. Union County's record for
1920 is notable:
Kind of Club Total Membership Value of Products, 1920
Pig Club 83 $8,107.00
Calf Club 39 1,568.00
Poultry Club 30 367.00
Cooking " 36 220.00
Serving " 36 310.00
Bean " 13 165.60
Maize " 10 120.00
Corn " 25 1,765.00
--- ----------
Total 272 $11,622.60
Pure-bred hogs and cattle owned by boys and girls are sold under the
auspices of the Farm Bureau. Prizes are offered. In Sheridan County, the
county club champions are sent to the "Annual Round-up" at the State
University. In Hughes, three teams of three members each were given a free
trip to the State Fair as a reward for their efforts and achievements. One
member of the Cow-Calf Club won a free trip to the International Live
Stock Show in Chicago as a prize for his exhibit at the State Fair.
Development of Cooeperation
Irrigation means cooeperation, but cooeperation in buying and marketing is
comparatively a new development. Cooeperation, however, is a necessity
because so many farmers are distant from the trade centers and shipping
points. Cooeperation is the prime interest of the Farm Bureaus which, in
some counties, undertake cooeperative buying and selling. The Hughes County
Farm Bureau has been especially effective in promoting cooeperative
enterprise. Says the County Agent:
The Medicine Valley Farm Bureau has done considerable work along
different lines, but the most outstanding has been the promotion of a
Farmers' Cooeperative Elevator. Most of the stock in this enterprise
has been sold and work will be started very soon on the building....
The Harrold Live Stock Shipping Association was promoted by the Farm
Bureau Community Club south of Harrold. Several meetings were held by
this club on marketing. Members were supplied with cooeperative
shipping instructions and information. At the present time, most of
the stock shipped out of Harrold is shipped through this organization.
It has proved a success. This community club was also instrumental in
the promotion of a cooeperative elevator at Harrold ... in addition to
the organization projects on marketing, considerable buying and
selling in car-load lots has been done by the different Farm Bureau
Community Clubs. The Snake Butte Community Club has bought four
car-loads of coal for its members, with a saving of at least $200.
They have also bought a car of flour, a car of apples and a car of
fence posts, all of which has effected a saving of another $200. Three
other community clubs have bought supplies by the car-load. These
purchases have netted members of the county a saving of approximately
six hundred dollars.... (The Farm Bureau through its exchange service
has located 4,550 bushels of seed flax, 495 pounds of Grimm alfalfa
seed, 200 bushels of seed wheat, 100 bushels of rye and 800 bushels of
seed corn.) One thousand, six hundred and eighty-five pounds of wool
was also directed to the state pool of the National Wool Warehouse and
Storage Company at Chicago, Illinois.
[Illustration: A TRUCK FARM IN HUGHES COUNTY]
Beaverhead County has three active stock-growers' associations, the most
active of which is the Big Hole Stockmen's Association which established
stock yards at Wisdom and at Divide, their shipping point. They finally
induced the railroad to help pay for the yards. This association was
founded chiefly to work for a road from the Big Hole over into the Bitter
Root Valley. The Forest Service was willing to help build the road if
Beaverhead and Ravalli Counties would also help. Beaverhead County did
not favor the project because it feared competition from the Bitter Root
products. But the Big Hole Valley wanted the road on account of the
business it would bring in. The Stockmen's Association raised about $7,000
towards it and the county finally put in $3,500. Besides their
contribution of money, the members of the Association donated time and
teams. One reason why they have held together so well and so long was
because they shared the debt. It has been hard sledding, but they have won
out. Their wage scale, which is established annually, was successfully
operated for the first time last year (1921), when all but two ranchers
stuck to the prescribed wage of $2.00 per day for hay hands. They have
fixed up the Fair Grounds at Wisdom and give a Pow-wow there every year.
[Illustration: FRUITS OF THE EARTH
The Community spirit expresses itself in friendly rivalry at Union County
Fair.]
Largely through the influence of the Farm Bureau, two cooeperative
organizations were recently started in Union County, the Union County
Farmers' Mutual Hail Insurance Association and the Registered Live Stock
and Pure Bred Poultry Association. There is only one other active
cooeperative at present, a Telephone Company at Mount Dora, capitalized at
$3,000. A state-wide marketing association has 280 Union County members
who produced in 1920 one-third of all the products marketed through the
organization. Besides the marketing associations, Hughes has a cooeperative
Farmers' Lumber Company.
All these counties have cooeperative stores. A cooeperative store at Wisdom
in Beaverhead County has fifty stockholders. Lima had a cooeperative store
in 1919-1920 which failed through poor management. Two Rochdale
Cooeperative stores were started three years ago in Ulm and Clearmont in
Sheridan County. When the central organization took the surplus earnings
of the branch stores to make up failures in other stores in the chain
instead of declaring dividends, both the Sheridan County stores withdrew
and organized cooeperatives of their own in March, 1921. Sheridan City for
the past eight years has had a cooeperative store in which ranchers and
farmers from nearby communities have most of the shares. There is also a
Miners' Store in Sheridan City. Hughes County has one cooeperative store
with 150 stockholders.
Urban and Rural Rivalry
All the centers are service stations for the farmers. In some places the
old, deep-seated antagonism between town and country is noticeable. There
is the feeling that the merchants overcharge, that big business sets the
prices, that capital is to be distrusted. Most of the merchants have been
of the old individualistic type which places the dollar higher than the
community, an idea which the Commercial Clubs are altering. This is
especially noticeable in Union County, where the feeling between country
and town has been very bitter. The farmers unfortunately are unfriendly to
and distrustful of the merchants and business men. Each group is really
interdependent, but 'such' a feeling retards progress and development. As
one leading farmer put it, "The prejudice between the farmer and business
man _must_ be overcome. There is no limit to the results if we can just
get together."
The farmers feel that the average merchant in buying farm products has not
discriminated between a good and a bad product so far as price goes. In
short, the honest farmer does not want to sell bad eggs or sandy maize,
but he doesn't like to get a poor price for a good product. Farmers feel
that the merchants have overcharged them for goods and obtained high
profits and they are undoubtedly right to some extent. The farmers believe
that the fact of their charging goods on credit with the merchant gives
the latter an unfair advantage over them, that the merchant thinks he can
pay any price he wants when purchasing from the farmer.
Chambers of Commerce and Commercial Clubs are working toward a better
understanding. Get-together meetings have been started. The first Union
County meeting prepared the farmers by letters and visits, in order to
suggest a more friendly and constructive meeting ground. In Sheridan and
Pierre, the Commercial Clubs have been very ready to cooeperate in any
movements that would benefit the farmer. An example of happier relations
between farmer and merchant is the rest room for farmers' wives maintained
in Dillon by the Good Government Club.
[Illustration: UP-TO-DATE REAPING ON THE PLAINS
Answering the World's Prayer for Daily Bread.]
Hard Times
In the history of this Range area the last three years have been the most
difficult for farmers and ranchers. They have suffered acutely from the
sharp drop in prices of stock and farm products. Part of the Range section
has had a severe drouth. Beaverhead has had several dry years. Last year
(1921), thousands of dollars' worth of hay had to be shipped into the
county as feed, and much livestock had to be sent out of the county to
graze. In addition to drouth, grasshoppers, fairly plentiful before,
became a scourge in part of Sheridan the summer of 1921. The farmers,
helped by the Farm Bureau, worked hard to exterminate them with poisoned
oats. Simultaneously with the drouth and grasshopper scourge in certain
sections, the decrease in prices has led to hard times and much
suffering. Whereas a rancher was "well off" a few years ago, he now
considers himself lucky if he is "in the hole" for only a few thousand.
The farmers are bitter. They feel that something is wrong with the
"system." One can hardly blame them when crops bring no profit, while
taxes seem to be higher than ever. The hard times have made ranchers and
farmers do more serious thinking about taxes, farm conditions, and the
marketing of farm products than they have ever done before.
E. T. Devine, writing on "Montana Farmers" in _The Survey Magazine_, gives
the farmers' position:
Montana farmers are much like other American producers, urban and
rural, but they are even harder hit than most of their fellow
countrymen, except, of course, unemployed town workers. They share in
the general calamity of relatively low prices for agricultural
products and they have also just passed through several years of
unprecedented drouth. Freight rates are high and burdensome, and the
things the farmers have to buy are still high in proportion to the
prices which they get for their grain and stock. These farmers are
therefore in debt, and are borrowing more than they can. They are
actually and not merely in a chronically distorted imagination, having
difficulty in paying their interest and taxes; and if their equity is
small they are losing it.... The farmers are not seeking fundamental
or permanent solutions. What concerns them is to get immediate and
appreciable relief from taxes.
Hard times, as in Union County, usually strike our best assets. The county
first had a County Agent in 1915, a Home Demonstration Agent in 1917, and
Assistant County Agent in 1918 and a Club Leader in 1918. Unfortunately,
the hard times forced upon the country a program of retrenchment. In 1920
the Assistant County Agent and, early in 1921, the Club Leader were
removed. At present, there is a determined effort in some quarters to
dispense with the other two workers.
Social Agencies
Country folk keep track of things. County papers as well as outside
newspapers are read in all communities. These outside newspapers come from
Denver, Kansas City, Butte or Omaha, depending upon location. Four
newspapers are published in Beaverhead, two in the county seat, and one in
each of the two villages. Rural Sheridan prints but one newspaper, _The
Tongue River News_, at Ranchester. Two dailies are published in Sheridan
City. Three communities in Union, and three in Hughes County, publish
their own papers. The town of Clayton has the _Examiner_ and the
_Tribune_, as well as a paper printed in Spanish. Grenville and Des
Moines, two villages in Union, also have local papers. In Hughes County,
Pierre has two papers, and Blunt and Harrold one each. The editors are
almost all progressive and up-to-date, and vitally interested in the
welfare of their communities.
More and better libraries are an urgent need of all these counties.
Sheridan, Pierre and Dillon all have splendid Carnegie libraries. The
majority of the schools have small school libraries. But there is only one
public library in Beaverhead County, besides that in Dillon, in the
community house of Wisdom village. Sheridan has no other library in the
whole county. The only libraries in Union County are a collection of books
for public use in the office of a village lumber yard and a small
travelling library. Hughes County has a town library and three circulating
libraries.
[Illustration: WISDOM IS JUSTIFIED
The Community House at Wisdom, Beaverhead County.]
Good leadership is always essential to progress. Every one of these
counties is fortunate in having some splendid county-wide leaders who are
devoting themselves to their county's progress. Wherever a county has a
Farm Bureau, leadership is developed by that organization. But in rural
sections where distances prevent people from coming together, leadership
is wanting. Each ranch is a small isolated world and by the very nature of
things there are few community undertakings. The development of local
leadership, especially in remote sections, should become the concern of
this country. As Hart says in his book, "Community Organization," "the
destiny of civilization is wrapped up in the future of community life. If
that life becomes intelligent, richly developed, democratically organized,
socially controlled--the future of civilization is secure.... The
determination is largely one of leadership."
Community Spirit
Red Cross work, during the war, did a great deal toward bringing about a
unified spirit. The Farm Bureau is working in this direction. When real
needs arise, a community spirit is born, and unsuspected qualities of
loyalty, cooeperation and leadership develop, as happened in one community
in Sheridan County, when that community wanted the State highway: they
canvassed every load of wheat that went to Sheridan City from their
community to show how much their road was used. Another splendid example
of community spirit was the pageant staged by Armstead Community, in
Beaverhead County, to celebrate the anniversary of the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. Every one in the community, even the babies as Indian
papooses, took part. About half of all the communities have a real
community spirit, i.e., a willingness on the part of the people to work
unselfishly, cooeperatively, for the best interests of the community. This
spirit, fostered by the Farm Bureau or by war work, has directed
communities to concern themselves with their roads, schools, methods of
farming and the creation and strengthening of all community bonds and
interests.
The results of this spirit are shown in social and educative agencies like
Lodges and the local branches of the Farm Bureau. Of the sixty-eight
Lodges only seventeen are for women, and their total enrollment is about
7,000 members. While women have fewer Lodges their attendance is more
enthusiastic and regular than in the case of the men. There are Commercial
Clubs in the city and towns, and in a number of the villages. The American
Legion has five branches in the four counties. Eight communities have
Literary Societies meeting regularly. Then there are the many clubs and
societies which are purely social. These include sewing clubs, card clubs,
athletic clubs and similar organizations which are found in the city and
towns, and in about one-third of the other communities. There are musical
organizations in seven communities, and four communities have community
singing. These organizations, together with the schools and churches, give
the inspiration for most of the social life.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: CAMPING IN SHERIDAN COUNTY
The colored cook, at least, seems to delight in her surroundings.]
"Movies," Motors and the Dance
All the larger centers have moving-picture theatres. With the coming of
the "movie," and the general ownership of cars, there is a growing
tendency to go into the centers for amusement. Dancing is the most popular
recreation. If an event is really a success, it ends with a dance. In many
communities a dance is the only thing that will "go." One reason for this
is the lack of leadership; a dance needs no planning to speak of, which is
not the case with other forms of indoor recreation. Dances attract people
from great distances and are generally held on Saturday night, lasting
until Sunday morning, with a feast at midnight. Perhaps the Farm Bureau
has an exhibition during the day, and there is a community dance in the
evening. It is held in the hall over the poolroom. An orchestra of three
army veterans plays good lively jazz. The latest tunes and dances of the
city are as familiar in these remote communities as are the latest modes
and fashions. No country square dances here; nothing older than the very
latest dancing, and the most modern of ear-capped coiffures! Whole
families attend, and parents take the floor along with the young folks.
There is a great friendliness. The young men are well set-up, muscular and
tanned, and some of them even wear spurs which clink together as they
dance. Feminine noses are not as white as they might be, though powder
puffs are here, very properly concealed. Most of these girls ride
horseback as well as their brothers, and both young women and men, with
their athletic supple figures, their innate sense of grace and rhythm,
might put to shame our tired, anaemic city dancers. At midnight, there is a
supper of fried chicken, sandwiches and real cake brought a few dozen
miles more or less by team or car. Everything tastes good because it is
made at home. Afterwards, the tireless feet continue the intricate,
graceful measures. But outside the brightly lighted hall, and beyond the
sound of laughter and music broods the silent, mysterious night of a
spacious country. How many city dancers know the homeward drive through a
big country, the moon perhaps lighting the river, the contours of plain
and butte, and the sleeping hamlets?
The most popular forms of outdoor recreation are the community barbecues,
frontier days and pow-wows. Only those who live this free, healthy life in
the heart of nature have appetites worthy of a barbecue. At noon the
delicious beef, roasted all night over a deep trough of coals, and basted
with real butter, is a social meal that many of us envy. There are
frontier field days with sports belonging to ranch life, such as horse
racing and broncho busting. The day usually ends with a big dance. Even
the "dude" ranches in Sheridan hold Frontier days, and great events they
are, too, with many spectators. In sections of Sheridan and Union
Counties, but especially in Beaverhead, there is the beauty of the country
which furnishes recreation in itself. Nature has lavished upon them every
gift of line and color. The mountains and the streams, the woods and the
canyons, hold a hundred delightful possibilities that are within the reach
of almost every one. It is a playground as varied as it is perfect. On
Saturdays and Sundays in the summer, car after car, packed with camp
equipment and home-made delicacies, head for the health-giving hills and
mountains.
[Illustration: A FRONTIER CELEBRATION
The Barbecue is an institution typical of the Range Country and is
attended by settlers from far and near.]
[Illustration: CHURCH AND COMMUNITY MAP OF HUGHES COUNTY, SOUTH DAKOTA]