44 THE " BACK TO THE LAND " MOVEMENT 



Robert Ransom Poole, Commissioner of Agriculture, Alabama. 

 Mr. Poole says the farmers in the sandy counties of Alabama are 

 more progressive than the large farmers. Mr. Poole thinks that 

 if the farmers could be induced to sell off their lands in smaller 

 tracts (than three hundred and twenty to two thousand) it would 

 be much better for the country as a whole, but the person who 

 owns property paying from ten to fifteen per cent on the invest- 

 ment is very loath to part with it. 



Harry Hammond, Cotton Planter, Beech Island, South Carolina. 

 "I know of no record in history where a race of small proprietors 

 has been prosperous. Everywhere they seem to form the wretched 

 residuum of labor after all other occupations are supplied." 



William Budge, Farmer and Real Estate Dealer, Grand Forks, 

 North Dakota. Mr. Budge says there are several big farms in 

 North Dakota, and mentions one of above seven thousand acres. 

 He adds that he would like to see them all out of the way. They 

 take up so much space that they hurt the school districts. The 

 owners ship in their supplies and ship their wheat out, and ship 

 their men in and out. The plowing is done with gang plows . . . 

 One man can handle one hundred and sixty acres on a farm of 

 that kind. The employees are generally single men. The farm 

 owners hire a crew in the spring and let them go in the fall, except 

 one or two to take care of the farm. Mr. Budge thinks some of the 

 big farms are profitable and some are not, depending on how they 

 are handled. The land has grown in value, and money is made in 

 that way. 



Brynjolf Prom, Banker and Farmer, Milton, North Dakota. 

 Mr. Prom (who owns and farms 1120 acres) says the effect of 

 bonanza farming is not good. The bonanza farmers do not 

 patronize the villages, but ship in goods from the east, and act 

 as wholesale grocery houses for themselves. They are also proba- 

 bly a drawback in the way of school privileges, which they do not 

 need, and if there are small farms wedged in between bonanza 

 farms the occupants of the small farms suffer. The bonanza farms 

 are divided up into different parts with a foreman for each part. 

 Each has a little village of its own. The hired help are usually 

 single men; only the foreman is married. The bonanza farms 

 are well conducted upon strictly business principles, the farming 

 is done more scientifically and economically than on the small 

 farms, and the percentage of profit is larger; but the general 

 results to the people of the country are not good, and the people 

 would generally favor the abolition of bonanza farming. 



