27 
nd the available public lands practically exhausted. Nowhere, In all 1 1 ■ * » 
country, la there an\ eonaiderable bodj of Government land imw available forordl 
nary agricultural operations. Consequent upon the almost unparalleled drought of 
the year «r« j a backward ebb of the tide of fanners thai has Bteadilj flowed 
westward, and the oonviotion on the part of manj that there are lai which 
have l •<•-•! i settled by farmers bnl whiohmust be abandoned bj them unless irrigation 
can be made practicable, We have heard overmuch perhaps of the abandoued farmi 
in tha oldest set tied portions of the country, but it isolearlj true that over largi 
prices for farm lands have been greatly lowered; that muoh hind once regularly 
cultivated i- now waste. Alongside this we see other large areas, * it ii great natural 
fertility or exceptional artificial advantages, in which prices for farm lands have 
advaneed until they seem to have reached ■ maximum under present conditions. 
The extent and rapidity of the ohanges in our farming population may well give 
oern. There are three great drainage systems carrying vast numbers of our 
people from farms. Two of these are inevitable, and If we are wise we will not 
fight the inevitable. We ^ i 1 1 not only Bubmit, but adapt ourselves to it. The first 
of these drains is that from the country to the oity. This will continue. The per- 
ge <>t* our farmers, as compared with those engaged in other callings, will 
become smaller. There is no lack of agricultural products. We produce much more 
than v 10. We feed our rapidly increasing population and have an incrcan- 
rplns for export. Often three-fourths of all the exports from our country in 
a year are those of agricultural products. The second ot* these drains is that from 
the farms of the older to those ot' the more newly settled portions of the country. 
This means no los. of productive POWer; only Change Of the place where it is exer- 
cised. This movement is inevitable and clearly wise in many cases. When the real 
OT supposed advantages of different sect ions of the country an- more nearly equalized, 
it wil large degree. The thir 1 of these drains is in full progress in my own 
and I witness it with regret, and protest that it is not. at Least it ought not 
. inevitable. This is the removal of tanners when they have aequired a com- 
petence or have passed the prime of life from the farms to the country towns and 
village results are often unfortunate for these farmers and their families; not 
always desirable to the communities to which they go, and very often deplorable to 
immunities they leave. In many cases there is not only the Loss of wise, em-r- 
rienced men, but the advent of a tenantry distinctly inferior as citizens 
and fanners, in a multitude of farming communities there has been a marked ret ro- 
on during the last twenty years in the intellectual and moral tone, as well as 
in the np; of and methods pursued on tin- farms. 
An "t only in the number hut in the percentage of tenants on American 
ble, unless then- is a recasting of our system of land tenure. 
Of the tenantry is to he a great misfortune will depend on 
theci sn try and tin; terms on which they hold the hind. If the 
litahh- partnerships between landowners ami those who furnish 
not only labor hut skill, there need l.e nothing of degradation or injustice to either 
If th<- system be one in which wealth ami intelligence dictates terms to 
rhich can furnish only labor without -kill, the results will 
d for the tenant-, bad for our agriculture, ami bad for national welfare, Emer- 
son has said : "That that i- Lad foi the* bee OSjO not he good for the s\\ ;irm." 
our land ow oership. In mntry the 
!i of farms seemi to <>ii. It will l , misfortune 
if this thai! bring as i ship. In 
ei " by the rich. An instance 
multimillionaire of the n « t ropol 
: i he coiner 
i IvilUati 
advanced civilization bj the • itive operations this .man is the 
