286 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



Naturally this new era of good will led on from 

 farm trains to railroad farms. These are already 

 established by several of the leading railroads, with 

 the avowed purpose of securing the drainage of 

 swamp lands, better plowing, with implements that 

 will bring up the subsoil, the selection of seed of the 

 best varieties, intensive tillage during the growing of 

 the crops, the securing of a large amount of humus, 

 preventing barnyard and other waste, establishing the 

 value of crop rotation, with winter cover crops in 

 the North and summer cover crops in the South, the 

 retention of only the best animal stock, the produc- 

 tion of food for men and animals on the farm itself, 

 and finally the keeping of careful accounts as well 

 as accurate memoranda of tests and their results. 



Following this work of the railroads, the States 

 have begun the solution of farm problems through 

 collective action. Governor Hadley of Missouri is 

 at the head of a well-thought-out plan, whereby that 

 State will undertake the movement of the congested 

 crowd out to farms, owned by the State and turned 

 over to actual settlers at cost price. The proposi- 

 tion is to assist the neophytes until tillage has become 

 remunerative. 



Heretofore State action has been confined almost 

 altogether to the patronage of State fairs. These 

 collections of the people and their products were at 

 one time of considerable value. They are of less 

 importance at the present day because we do not need 

 so much the exhibition of horse speed and immense 



