FIFTY MILLION STRONG 



to help all persons desirous of migrating to the country to do 

 so by a safe route. 



The writer has in recent years assisted a number of young 

 men in the purchase of homes in the country. An average 

 industrious young man can, if buying a farm at a reasonable 

 price, charged a low rate of interest and given plenty of time 

 to meet his obligation, pay for a good farm, even though his 

 initial payment is small. This cannot be done, however, on 

 land that has lost its fertility, except in rare cases. In 1908 a 

 young man was furnished $5,100 out of $5,500 for the pur- 

 chase of a 6o-acre farm. Since then, or in eight years, he 

 has tiled the land reasonably well, put some money on the 

 buildings, considerably increased the fertility of the soil, and 

 reduced his total indebtedness to $2,100. In four more years, 

 if he continues to do equally well, he will be entirely out of 

 debt and possess a farm worth $9,000. The important thing 

 is to work out a plan, national in its scope, that will give all 

 deserving young men opportunities for the purchase of homes 

 in the country. 



(2) Farming Put on a Profitable Basis. The four funda- 

 mental things needed to put farming on a profitable basis 

 with present low yields per acre are standardizing farm 

 products, standardizing containers, economic transportation 

 and scientific selling. Absence of standardization is detri- 

 mental to the sale of all products and especially those of a 

 high-grade character. Every first-class farmer in the Corn 

 Belt has marketed a good many bushels of good corn for 

 which the elevators have never paid a sufficient amount be- 

 cause of the fact that there is so much poor corn. Elevators 

 base their prices on corn of average quality. In a general 

 way this is a rule all over the Corn Belt. The efforts which 

 the federal government, the several states and numerous co- 

 operative bodies, as well as corporations, are putting forth to 

 correct this defect will eventually lead to the adoption of a 

 national plan. Federal and state laws have also been passed 

 relative to containers, but progress in this direction, too, is 

 just in its incipient stage. The aim in the matter of trans- 



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