“ The Farmers’ Side ” 
Give Us Men—not Advice 
have the plow and the six liorses all riKht. but 
nearly all the work done on our 200 acres of produc¬ 
tive soil is done with a two or three-horse team. Mr. 
I’rice is in error about a scareity of hox>e ixower on 
the farms, refrardless of the number sent to Europe. 
There are idle woi'k horses on almost every farm, 
nearly every day in the yeai*, and so many of them 
that there is absolutely no market for anything but 
shippers. There is too much motive power on the 
farms, because there is no extra help to save crops. 
THEORY AND rRAOTIOE.—A city man consi¬ 
ders the plowing and planting of a whole farm, re¬ 
gardless of fertility or care of the yield as efficiency. 
Does he know any manufactm*er who partly finishes 
unlimited material as a preliminary for selling a 
to speed for some one, limited horse power is suffi¬ 
cient on the farms. There are always a few mis¬ 
guided fanners who take advice, and the advisers 
who influenced the tearing np of too much soil can 
see “calamity fields” enough to show the good they 
did. 
THE NEED OF WORKERS.—We have watched 
the factories, politics, etc., drain the farms of its 
brain and brawn until now there is little left but the 
imbeciles, and production is but 50 per cent, of 
capacity. Habit, self-intei*est and patriotism all 
tantalize us now, but our hands are tied. Our lesson 
has been learned. Grain handled by incompetent help 
has rotteil. I husketl 57 corn shocks in one row last 
Fall, each and evei\v one dowm, and partly deciayed, 
after I h.ad made tens 
of tlnnisands ejxrlier in 
life, none of which 
fell. The men who 
cut and set them up 
had r‘i!.5 per day for de¬ 
struction, and I ask 
what induc'ement is 
there to plant more 
th.an we can .save? The 
advice of idealists and 
men who think they 
understand far ming 
will do no good. “Give 
xis men” and we will 
feed the world at even 
lower prices than exist 
now. We want to do 
it and have the soil, 
the rolling stock and 
the know how, and are 
not afraid to pay the 
riglit kind of heliiers. 
An ob-servation for 
boys and young men: 
There will be no place 
in the world during 
the next generation 
where a family with 
the amount of land 
they them.selves can 
hamlle, will be so well 
fixed ;is on a farm. 
“The farmer starves 
last.” W. W. RKYNOLUS. 
Ohio. 
The End of a 
Wheat Boom 
M istaken views.—T here has been a great 
deal of evidence in our good magazines that 
educated men, who do jiot fai-m, know infinitely 
more of our failings, duties and needs than the men 
in production. Fully half the farmers understand 
their business as well as any other riass in the world 
do theirs. Influenced l>y a close association with 
nature—the best place for good thinking—changes of 
weather, quiet Sabbaths, long happy Winter even¬ 
ings, freedom from care about livelihood, the best 
periodicals and book.s, a feeling of security, and with 
the companionship of animals which are ])ersonal 
friends, no one can ap¬ 
ply their minds bet¬ 
ter, and be more thor¬ 
oughly educated in the 
things worth while. 
Further, most of them 
realize that they are 
where man was put 
“to increase, multiply 
and replenish the 
earth, and subdue it” 
and they never lose 
sight of the fact that 
they are partners with 
the Almighty, each do¬ 
ing his share, and .such 
a relationship must 
place them among the 
top grade of human¬ 
ity. 
FARM E DEC A- 
TION.—I am a farm¬ 
er and can go into any 
office, store or factory, 
and make a better 
hand in the rut 
there than any man 
who never farmed can 
make on a farm. I can 
become proficient in 
any of them in a few 
years, while after 
“making a hand” on 
a farm for 52 years, 
studying all the time, 
associating with men 
of my class whose 
books were open, own¬ 
ing, breeding, nursing 
and feeding animals 
for 40 years, studying 
the chemistry of soils, 
manures and feeds, 
handling hundreds of 
implements and tools 
dextrously, I am “only 
a farmer.” There is no 
element of boasting in 
this because I am per¬ 
son ally ac(iuainted 
with more than 100 
farmers more success¬ 
ful wno do not nee<l to 
make apologies in any 
society. 
MACHINERY AND 
MEN.—»Such being the 
facts, it has always been amu.sing tu 
written articles bj- our advisers and 
they are too serious under the 
-./"-I 
Housewife : “ Say, I’m tired of this everlasting scolding of housewives ! What about the men saving a bit on tobacco and beer?’’ 
rea<l nicely 
critics, but 
present distress. 
Herewith is a sample, out of a swivel chair, in a 
trade paper. “When the editor sees farmers using 
two horses and a single share plow, instead of a 
six-horse team with a gang plow turning three fur¬ 
rows, he knows tlmt ignorance is costing the coun¬ 
try dearly.” Another by Theodore H. I’rice in tlie 
June 27th Outlook, overlooks that plowing and 
planting ai’e the smallest part of the work with a 
crop, and gives us a nicely written di.scussion of the 
tractor turning three furrows, and the absolute 
necessity of its adoption. With that combination, at 
my age, I cun plant more than 12 men can care for 
and save at harvest, but where are the men? We 
small outpuIV Wo luivo :i six-horse farm, and 
would gladly woi-k full capacity, but we work as it 
pays us best. I was fortunate in saving my one 
boy for a farmer, but if Uncle Sam drafts him, we 
have .six horses to .sell and some other things. A 
tractor would be about as much use to us for cul¬ 
tivating corn and harvesting as a flying machine. 
LAKOR SCARtTTY.—Now do not think we are 
inefficient, nor that ours is an exceptional case. Very 
few farms, anywhere in t)hio, have any men on them 
under middle age, and much of the work is done by 
old men. When laborers can get i?.'! per day for put¬ 
tering eight hours at public work, when a boy after 
he has finished school can get a “position” behind a 
counter or on a traction car, or get 35 cents an hour 
on roads or imblic utilities. <ir if lie can find an auto 
A few years ago a 
great roar was made 
over Stoner, Miracle or 
Marvelous wheat It 
was to revolutionize 
wheat growing. It 
spread or tillered so 
that two pecks would 
seed an acre—and the 
price was only .$5 per 
bushel. A man brought 
us n sample plant 
with 40 or 50 stems 
growing togther, as a 
sample of what this 
wheat would do. It 
looked as if someone had planted a dozen kernels to¬ 
gether in a small hole; but the agent claimed it all 
grew from one seed. Many people who ought to have 
known better boosted this wheat, and held the price 
of seed at a big figure for a few years. Did Time is 
the final .iudge of such things. His sharp scythe 
finally cuts the novelty out of the novelties, and 
Miracle and Marvelous have fallen by the wayside. 
They or “it” i)roved to be a strain of Fulcaster, and 
the final .show-down puts an end to the boom. 
In Bulletin 117 of the Delaware Experiment Sta¬ 
tion I’rof. A. E. Grantham reports a long and pains¬ 
taking experiment in testing the tillering of Wintei- 
wheat. There were 06 varieties planted by hand and 
under different conditions, in order to test their pow¬ 
er to spread or tiller and the effect of this upon the 
Published by 
The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New Yorh 
The Rural 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
Postpaid 
Single Copies, Five Cents 
VOL. I.XXVI. 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 15, 1017. 
No. 4447. 
