FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 35 



its fertility, as was shown by the continually decreasing crops, 

 and farmers began to realize that the system of farming that 

 they were carrying on was unsafe, yet they continued to carry 

 on this plan, often through lack of capital. Money was very 

 scarce and the amount required to stock up a farm and provide 

 suitable buildings for the live stock was considerable. It was an 

 easy matter to make a profit on the comparatively cheap land 

 without live stock, and the tendency then, as it is today, was to 

 operate along the line of least resistance without any thought of 

 the future. Much is being said lately concerning farm credits, 

 and no doubt we shall soon see an improvement along this line. 



One of the fundamental causes, however, for the system of 

 grain farming as it was generally carried on, was that most of 

 the farms were bought, not to farm, but to speculate on. A man 

 purchased a farm because he was sure that in a very few years 

 some one would come along and pay him a good profit on his 

 investment. It is true that he sometimes worked the land him- 

 self, or perhaps rented it. The crops paid the taxes and the in- 

 terest and helped make him a living while he waited for a buyer. 

 He leased the farm a year at a time, did not care to make any 

 improvements. The renter could not afford to carry on a system 

 of live stock farming because he had no place to house the stock, 

 and because live stock farming could not possibly be carried on 

 where the renter had the assurance of having the farm for only 

 one year. Grain farming, of course, was about the only kind of 

 farming that would fit into this system. In the locality where I 

 happen to operate a farm this system still prevails. It is impos- 

 sible to make any agricultural progress, to interest the farmer in 

 silos, in more and better stock, in alfalfa and other things that 

 make for better agricultural conditions, because they cannot be 

 successfully worked into this system of operating farms. A few 

 years ago when the Country Life Commission was appointed to 

 carry on investigations as to agricultural conditions, they found 

 an old man who had purchased his farm from the government 

 and had lived on it and farmed it ever since. His neighbors' 

 farms were producing from 35 to 40 bushels of corn per acre, 

 but his land was producing only about two bushels of wheat and 



