Cooperative Work with Columbia University 381 



or robbery. The latter affect only a few individuals and can be 

 repaired with only a temporary loss. He who bums up the 

 vegetable matter and robs the soil commits a crime against the com- 

 monwealth which a generation will not repair. 



The exceptional county is that in the Genesee Valley, where 

 large areas of land are owned by my friends, the Wadsworths, 

 who have a system of tenantry not unlike that in England, which 

 is based on building up the land. Most admirably does it succeed, 

 but, alas! it does not make for citizenship. After a man has 

 inhaled the air of America, if he has any vision, he wants to 

 become a landowner, an integTal part of the great commonwealth 

 : — a most laudable ambition. Here where the land is owned by 

 the few he cannot expect to become an owner, hence as he prospers 

 he must turn his steps to some other region ; . therefore, his roots 

 never sink very deep into the soil, and he does not become the 

 factor in the community life that he should, for his eyes are 

 always fixed beyond the bounds of his line fences. 



This decrease in managers and tenants indicates that the state 

 of things outlined is becoming appreciated and that the odium 

 attaching itself to the tiller of the soil, which pictured him as a 

 " rube " with his pants in his boots and hayseed in his hair — a 

 natural victim for any sort of confidence man — is passing away. 

 Such an individual rarely existed. The farmer is appreciating the 

 dignity of his calling and that it is more honorable to follow the 

 plow than the bulls and bears, also that they who follow the latter 

 quite often become shorn lambs. 



MORTGAGED FARMS 



Much has been said about mortgaged farms. What are the 

 facts ? There are 72,311 farms mortgaged — 35,487 less than half 

 the total number. The sum of farm mortgages is $97,309,848, 

 or an average of $1,346 for each farm mortgaged — surely not an 

 alarming amount. This does not indicate poverty, but rather 

 thrift. The man who purchases a farm — if he has no other 

 resources — must raise his money on his land, just as the merchant 

 must raise his, under like condi'tions, on his stock of goods. Pay- 

 ing off the mortgage has been the making of many a man. It has 

 stimulated him to secure a home for himself, and has taught him 



