No. 6. departmp:nt of agriculture. 5 



good weatlier for the boys and girls to go out on pleasnre bont or 

 on business, they will ])refer to remain on the farm amid its health- 

 ful and moral surroundings. 



"BACK TO THE LAND" SLOGAN 



The battle-cry, "Back to the land" is the slogan of the hour. It 

 is told on the platform, preaclied from the pulpit, is the subject of 

 editorials and everywhere is heard the refrain, "back to the land." 

 Much of this cry are mere ]>latitudes; meaningless. If this great 

 (ountry is in earnest in shouting "back to the land," it will give the 

 young people a square deal. Improve the surroundings of the farm 

 home; construct good roads and thus induce the young men by attrac- 

 tions, to leave the thronging multitude of our cities and return to the 

 home of their father's. Tlie State should discourage tbe rental system 

 by adopting some method of credit system whereby the tenant farmer 

 can purchase from the owner who has retired to the city a farm, and 

 thereby build up an interested farming constituency that will give 

 the land better tillage and thus insure better and larger production. 

 Tliere should be a system of marketing the products of the farms 

 witliout the presence of the middleman that will bring more money 

 to the producer and, through the dealex% cheaper prices to the con- 

 sumer. 



Co-operation sliould be the watchword of the hour. Let organiza- 

 tions co-operate for mutual help and protection and thus bring in a 

 new era in the farm community. Make it possible for the farmer to 

 carry on his farm by supplying him with money. 



SCARCITY OF FARM LABOR 



Could the problems, noted above, be solved and this trend to the 

 city be stopped, one of the greatest difficulties now^ confronting the 

 farmer, scarcity of labor, would be removed. From all sections of 

 the State there comes to the Department appeals for farm hands. 

 While the wages for farm labor has, to some extent, been increased, 

 the supply cannot be met. The abnormal development of our chief 

 resources has brought about this scarcity. Our great deposits of 

 coal and iron are being taken from Nature's storehouse with such 

 prodigality, amounting to wastefulness, that a great army of men, 

 both native and foreign born are required to carry on these industries. 

 Some of our philanthropists have endeavored to meet this difficulty 

 of scarcity of farm hands by inducing immigrants, coming from the 

 farming sections of Southern Europe, to settle in the country and 

 take their places on the farm. 



- Laborers sent free of cost to the farming sections soon tire of 

 country life and in a week or two leave and turn to the cities to 

 engage either in mill work or in the uncertain occupations of peanut 

 vendors or similar lines. 



Our own State has 51.105 tenant farmers or about one to every 

 fourth farm, and about 50.000 farms are mortgaged. Tlie greatest 

 number of tenant farmers are found in the Southern States, the 

 hifrhest being Texas with 219.575, with Pennsylvania standing 

 eighteenth. With the exception of two Western states, the Keystone 

 State has more tenant farmers than any other state north of Ma- 

 son's and Dixon's Line. 



