WORN OUT FARMS
"WELL, you found some mighty poor land, I reckon," was the greeting
Percy received from Grandma West as he returned from his walk over
Westover and some neighboring farms.
"I found some land that produces very poor crops," he replied, "but
I don't know yet whether I should say that the land is poor."
"Well, I know it's about as poor as poor can be; but it was not
always poor, I can tell you. When I was a girl, if this farm did not
produce five or six thousands bushels of wheat, we thought it a poor
crop; but now, if we get five or six hundred bushels, we think we
are doing pretty well. My husband's father paid sixty-eight dollars
an acre for some of this land, and it was worth more than that a few
years later and, mind you, in those days wheat was worth less and
niggers a mighty sight more than they are nowadays; but, somehow,
the land has just grown poor. We don't know how. We have worked
hard, and we have kept as much stock as we could, but we could never
produce enough fertilizer on the farm to go very far on a thousand
acres.
"Yes, Sir, we have just about a thousand acres here and we still own
it,--and with no mortgage on it, I'm mighty glad to say. But, laws,
the land is poor, and you can get all the land you want about here
for ten dollars an acre. There comes Charles, now. He can tell you
all about this country for more than twenty miles, I reckon.
"Wilkes!" A negro servant answered the call, and took the horse as
Charles West stopped at the side gate.
"Wilkes was born here in slave times, nigh sixty years ago," she
continued. "He is three years older than my son Charles. He has
remained with us ever since the war, except for a few months when he
went away one time just to see for sure that he was free and _could
_go. But he came back mighty homesick and he'll want to stay here
till he dies, I reckon.
"Charles, this is Mr. Johnston, Percy Johnston, as he says; but he
thinks he is no kin of General Joe or Albert Sidney. He's been
looking at the land hereabout, but I don't think he'll want any of
it after seeing the kind of crops we raise."
With this introduction, the mother disappeared within the house, and
Charles took her seat on the vine-covered veranda.
"I feel that I owe an apology to you, Sir," said Percy, "for
presenting myself here with bag and baggage, and asking to share the
hospitality of your home, with no previous arrangements having been
made; but by chance I met your friend, Doctor Goddard, on the train,
and, in answer to my inquiry as to whom I could go to for correct
information concerning the history and present condition and value
of farm lands in this section of the country, he advised me to stop
off at Blue Mound Station and consult with you. Had I known that you
were to be in Montplain to-day, of course I should have gone
directly there. Your mother very graciously consented to receive me
as a belated summer boarder, a kindness which I greatly appreciate,
I assure you.
"My mother and I have a small farm in Illinois,--so small that it
would be lost in such an estate as Westover, but the price of land
is very high in the West at the present time; and I am really
considering the question of selling our little forty-acre farm and
purchasing two or three hundred acres in the East or South. My
thought is that I might secure a farm that was once good land, but
that has been run down to such an extent that it can be bought for
perhaps ten or twenty dollars an acre. I should want the land to be
nearly level so that it would not be difficult to prevent damage
from surface washing. I should prefer, of course, to purchase where
there is a good road and not more than five miles from a railway
station.
"If I secure such a farm, it would be my purpose to restore its
fertility. If possible I should want to make the land at least as
productive as it ever was, even in its virgin state."
"Well, Sir," said Mr. West, "if you could accomplish your purpose
and ultimately show a balance on the right side of the ledger, it
would be a work of very great value to this country. There will be
no difficulty in securing such land as you want with location and
price to suit you; but I think that you should know in advance that
older men than you have purchased farms hereabout with very similar
intentions, but with the ultimate result that they have lost more,
financially, than we who are native to the soil; for, while we were
once well-to-do and are now poor, we still own our land,
impoverished as it is. However, the farm still furnishes us a
comfortable living, supplemented, to be sure, with some income from
other sources.
"I am very willing to give as much information as I can regarding
our lands and the agricultural conditions and common practices,
although I fear that this knowledge will discourage you from making
any investments in our worn-out farms. If you still decide to make
the trial, I surely hope you will be successful, for we need such an
object lesson above all else.
"I assume that you will wish to locate near a town of considerable
size, in order that you can haul manures from town, and perhaps some
feed also; and have a good market for your milk and other products."
"No, Sir," said Percy, "I should prefer not to engage in dairying,
and I do not wish to make use of fertilizer made from my neighbors'
crops. We have some object lessons of that kind in my own state; and
I have no doubt that some can be found in this state who feed all
they produce on their own land and perhaps even larger amounts of
feed purchased from their neighbors, or hauled from town, and who,
in addition to using all of the farm fertilizer thus produced, haul
considerable amounts of such materials from the livery stables in
town. With much hard work, with a good market for the products of
the dairy and truck garden, and with business skill in purchasing
feed from their neighbors when prices are low, such men succeed as
individuals; but do they furnish an object lesson which could be
followed by the general farmer?"
"I had not looked at the matter from that point of view," said Mr.
West, "but it is plain to see that on the whole there can be only a
small percentage of such farmers; and in reality they are a
detriment to their neighbors who permit their own hay and grain to
be hauled off from their farms; but certainly these are the methods
followed by our most successful farmers, and these are they who live
on the fat of the land."
"Are they farmers or are they manufacturers?" asked Percy. "It seems
to me that, in large measure, their business is to manufacture a
finished product from the raw materials produced upon other farms,
either in the immediate neighborhood or in the newer regions of the
West. As you know, much of our surplus produce from the farms of the
corn belt is shipped into the eastern and southern states, there to
be used as food for man and beast, not only in the cities, but also
to a considerable extent in the country. Instead of living on the
fat of the land, such manufacturers live in the country at the
expense of special city customers who may have fat jobs and are able
to pay fancy prices for country produce made by the impoverishment
of many farms. In most cases, if such a 'successful farmer' were
compelled to pay average prices for what he buys and allowed to
receive only average prices for what he sells, his fat would have
plenty of lean streaks."