Stof RURAL NEW-YORKER 
263 
Helping, the Farmer to Help Himself 
F ARMS GOING TO WASTE.—One of the saddest 
things the modern tourist of New York State has 
to view is the vacant farms in almost every county. 
When driving through Sullivan County one is 
shocked at the condition of the farms during the last 
30 years. Several years ago this county was owned 
and farmed by some of the best farmers on the Amer¬ 
ican continent. Today, those farms which were so 
productive under the cultivation of native Amer¬ 
icans. are overgrown with briar and brushwood now 
that, they have passed into the hands of others. 
Every farmhouse is turned into a hoarding house, 
ami the land is left to care for itself, which in every 
case means ruin. There is literally no argument to 
justify such a procedure. The situation in Broome 
and Delaware is a little different, but even those 
counties are sighing for cultivation, and there are 
scores of vacant farms that would respond to human 
effort and would yield an abundance of necessary 
products if men could he found to farm them, for 
they were once the pride of the early settler and 
intensive way that the solution of many of the 
world’s problems would be seen to lie in the solution 
of the vacant farm problem. But the young man 
has no money, and money is power, and provides op¬ 
portunity. Therefore he does not get the opportunity 
to develop himself and show what he can do to bless 
humanity by cultivating one of these vacant farms. 
If anyone would come forward and take the risk of 
buying the farm for him, and trust to his inherent 
integrity, he would make good. All he wants is an 
opportunity. Create the opportunity for him, and in 
09 cases out of every 300 he will honor you for It. 
HOW ONE FARMER HELPS.—Bet me illustrate 
this to you by a sketch from life which I know to be 
absolutely true. Lauren II. Colwell has given us a 
wonderful example in this kind of work for more 
than 40 years. Born in a log cabin 7G years ago, of 
a sturdy ancestry, which came to this country before 
the Revolutionary War, he had a great passion for 
the cultivation of the soil, which was manifest in his 
early years on his father’s farm. In later years, 
understood, but all great souls and great minds have 
been misunderstood. Not every observer appreciated 
his work, but be went on just the same. 
A REPRESENTATIVE CASE.—How did he do it? 
Let me give you a concrete example. We will take a 
representative case. Let us call him John Jones, 
in order to hide his identity. He held a grammar 
school education, hut could not get through high 
school. He is full of life and enthusiasm. lie wants 
to do something for himself. He would like to be a 
farmer, but even bis father discourages him in that. 
However, he knows Mr. Colwell has helped young 
fellows whom he thought were not a bit better in 
any way than he. so he ventures to go and see him 
secretly and talk matters over with him. hoping that 
he, too. might get help. He thinks it a nervy thing 
to do, but other man have asked Colwell to buy a 
farm for them, and they have succeeded, and so he 
takes a chance and tries it. Colwell listens to his 
story, forms his judgment of him aud tells him to 
come again in a day or two and he will try to fix 
Sat/ what you will, harc s the best farm crop of all. Too much of it has already been exported to the city. That little fellow with the sweater will make a tail 
of woe out of every life of that eat 
made a fine contribution to the needs of mankind. 
The farms are still there, of course, a reminder of 
better days, and a challenge to the future citizenry 
of our land. 
UNDERLYING CAUSES. — Several reasons are 
given for this desolation among our farm lands. 
Some tell us it is the fault of the corporations, some 
say it is the fault of the middleman, and there are 
scores of reasons advanced from time to time which 
are plausible enough in themselves, and many of us 
believe them. We are all sure that the farmer does 
not always get a square deal, but that is not all the 
story of vacant farms. Nor has the argument of the 
city being a drawing card all the force that men 
would seem to clothe it with at times. There are 
lots of young men in our rural districts who would 
make the best of farmers if they only had an oppor¬ 
tunity. They have brains, energy and vision, as 
well as common sense and good judgment. We all 
know what assets these elements of character are for 
the farmer. And there are hundreds of young men 
in our rural districts who could be marshaled until 
one had the finest force of young men in the world 
to till the soil of the State of New York in such an 
when it became impossible for him to stay on the 
farm himself because of ill health, he undertook the 
work of helping boys who had no money of their 
own to purchase farms and stock them fully. They 
could begin a successful career, with nothing but 
their character, or Mr. Colwell’s estimate of it, as 
their stock In trade. Many a young man on the hills 
of Delaware and Broome counties thanks God for 
Colwell’s confidence in him when to all other people 
it was so different. Colwell had a wonderful faculty 
for understanding young men. He was able to see 
through them at a glance. He couUl also see in them 
something of value that most people missed, and 
wherever he saw the least bit of hope he put all his 
wonderful character and helpfulness at the disposal 
of the young man before him. In this way he was 
able to give these young men a superb opportunity, 
aud in every ease there was a response beyond any¬ 
thing that local friends had anticipated, for every 
hoy made good. There are nearly 5o men in Broome 
and Delaware counties who are comfortably situated, 
to say the least, simply because Colwell gave them 
the opportunity, by putting confidence in them when 
scarcely anyone else would. Of course, he was mis- 
him up. When John returns, Colwell, who is con¬ 
vinced that the young fellow is honest and indus¬ 
trious. has a contract drawn up. in which it is stat¬ 
ed that a certain farm, owned by Colwell, is fully 
equipped and stocked, and shall be used by Jones as 
if it were his own, provided he is willing to pay legal 
interest on the value of the farm, which is stated in 
the contract, with the privilege of paying for the 
farm in any way convenient to Jones. Sometimes 
Jones would pay $25 down, and sometimes he paid 
nothing. At one time Jones had bad luck, and half 
his cattle died, and you can imagine how discouraged 
he was when he went to Colwell and wanted to give 
up altogether. But Colwell said: “No: I will buy 
you some more, and you can pay when you are able.” 
And that is just the way Colwell did. He made them 
stand up when they must have fallen but for his 
bracing. The contract was easy, that a fellow could 
pay just as he liked, so long as he showed a disposi¬ 
tion to do the square thing. And Colwell says that 
he never had a failure among all the men that he 
tried to help. The scheme appealed to the manliness 
of the young men. They could uot very well fall 
down. Colwell had taken all the risk, and all they 
