SOLVING “THE GREAT FARM PROBLEM.” 
College Son and Working Farmer. 
EXPERIENCE IN THE WEST.—On page G71 
“An Old Graduate” tells liis experience regarding 
this matter, and having during the past year or two 
observed several such inquiries in The It. N.-Y., I 
have concluded to tell how this is being met in the 
West by those having large landed estates, and large 
ranch or farm interests. Throughout such States as 
North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and 
other Western States, there have during the past 25 
to 30 years been built up great landed estates, in 
some instances amounting to several thousand acres, 
and with stock and equipment footing up in some 
instances $100,000 to $500,000 in value. Naturally, 
the hardy pioneer who through fortune and misfor¬ 
tune has succeeded in 
accomplishing so much, 
has in most instances 
been spurred on with 
the ambition to benefit 
his family rather than 
himself, and to perpetu¬ 
ate this interest many 
have incorporated into 
a company, with the 
children as managers of 
special departments. As 
their practical experi¬ 
ence and ability to man¬ 
age is developed they 
finally become the head 
or heads of the busi¬ 
ness, the older members 
exercising rather a su¬ 
pervisory power on the 
directorate. In Mon¬ 
tana, especially during 
the past 10 years, many 
such corporations have 
been formed, and are 
working out satisfac¬ 
torily to all concerned. 
It might be said, how¬ 
ever, that the old-time 
Montanian or Montana 
ranch family have busi¬ 
ness ability r atlie r 
highly developed, and * 
consequently such cor¬ 
porations seem a nat¬ 
ural sequence to their 
life’s work. While it is 
a fact that we farmers do considerable “kicking” 
about the existing order of things, we of Montana 
have been pretty well able to take care of our own 
in legislative matters, and satisfactory corporation 
laws exist to cover this purpose. I might also add 
that in many communities in Montana exist large 
canal companies in some instances having an actual 
selling value from $10,000 to $100,000, creamery 
companies, banks, etc., and we have copied largely 
from our Mormon neighbors of Utah, who have this 
sort of community corporation highly developed. 
A CASE IN POINT.—I recently met an old friend 
hi another portion of the State who two years ago 
formed such a corporation. His business is that of 
grain and hay growing, combined with the sheep 
and horse business. He has three grown sons at 
home. These people originally came to Montana 
iioin Ontario some 25 years ago, and acquired land 
Minch later through a co-operative (corporation) 
ditch reclaimed their land, and made it quite val¬ 
uable. The sons, too, acquired other land, some 
suitable only for pasture, and their business grad¬ 
ually developed into grain, hay. sheep, and horses. 
The present value of their holdings would possibly 
foot $50,000. Two years ago the father decided to 
form a corporation, which was done, and arranged 
so that each of the sons takes charge of that par¬ 
ticular branch of the work, for which he seemed 
best suited. None of these boys is a graduate of 
any agricultural college, and I doubt if of a high 
school, yet they are active workers, good business 
men, and above all know how to handle other men. 
One son is farm manager, and has sole charge of all 
work pertaining to crop production, and the sale of 
the same. Another son has sole management of 
their sheep interests, is responsible for their man¬ 
agement. lambing, feeding, and sale, and the men 
employed for this particular work. The third son 
has sole management of the large band of horses 
and all that pertains to them. The father now has 
reached a good ripe old age. yet is a very active 
man, but affairs have gone on so well with this 
family that he does not concern himself much with 
any part of the work. The boys consult him fre¬ 
quently, and find his judgment regarding the prac¬ 
tical workings to be almost indispensable. I have 
met several other of the older Montana ranchmen 
or farmers who have followed a similar procedure 
and have yet to learn of a failure. Of course the 
sons who have taken up this work has been influ¬ 
enced almost entirely by a love for the work and life. 
FARM AND FACTORY CONTRACTS. — The 
writer has been a close student of agriculture in all 
its phases for over 40 years past: this in Indiana, 
Illinois, Ohio, Minnesota, Dakota, and Montana, and 
to me the greatest problem confronting us is not so 
much of management as a fair deal. Since the Civil 
War, State and National legislation has either con¬ 
sciously or unconsciously tended to build up, and 
A CONSERVATIVE FEATHERED FATHER AND Ills PROGRESSIVE 
protect the manufacturer, at the expense of the 
farmer. Where have the great fortunes built up by 
the McCormicks. Swifts, Cudahys, Goulds, Hills, etc., 
came from? Is it not either directly or indirectly 
from the soil and the farmer? Cities have been 
built with the purpose of furnishing a cheap and 
unfailing supply of labor—labor that at best only 
becomes a part of a great machine, and in the end 
when- the age of unfitness has arrived is thrown 
aside as worthless. This great supply of labor has 
been drawn from the rural districts, until to-day 
the farmer is obliged to curtail his employment of 
labor to the utmost, and unless one has a perfectly 
equipped and well-balanced, organized farm, with its 
full complement of live-stock he cannot hope to make 
a profit. Labor is the highest priced to the farmer 
in the history of our nation, and the average net 
earnings of the farms 
of the United States 
would seem to be the 
lowest in our history. 
In proof of this last 
statement I call to mind 
a census recently taken 
in New York State re¬ 
garding the actual earn¬ 
ings of a large number 
of farms in that State, 
and many showed that 
the average hired man 
realized more than the 
land o w ner himself. 
Even the fact that land 
in Illinois, and part of 
Indiana sells at from 
$150 per acre and up¬ 
wards does not prove 
that the land is worth 
it: in fact much of such 
land will not yield a 
fair return for the in¬ 
vestment, and the ex¬ 
perience of New York, 
Virginia, and Ohio, will 
sooner or later be re¬ 
peated in Illinois and 
Indiana as well as 
Iowa. The trouble is 
fundamental. To my 
mind the two greatest 
needs of the American 
farmer are cheaper labor 
FAMILY. Fig. 327. and cheaper money with 
which to work, some¬ 
thing after the “Herrick” plan, so far as money is 
Concerned. 
"TWO BLADES OF GRASS.”—It is amusing to 
see the opinions expressed by so-called authorities 
that we are about to starve from want of sufficient 
food products. This rich soil of ours will produce 
sufficient for all our needs when the producer is 
reasonably compensated for his labor and invest¬ 
ment. So long as he only realizes a 35-eent dollar 
with a 75 to 85-cent expense he will go out of 
business, and his farm will return to briars and 
thickets. Every proposition advanced regarding the 
reduction of the "high cost of living” has been to 
the end that the farmer producer shall receive less. 
B. F. Yoakum of the Rock Island Railroad stated 
recently that the American farmer produced $6,000,- 
000,000 while the American consumer paid $13,000,- 
000.000 for the same. In our State and National 
governments the tendency is to build more battle¬ 
ships, large buildings, create more offices, and still 
more officials, and all to what end? History in all 
