Vol. I.XXVIK. 
1'ublibtied Weekly by Tlie Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. SOtli St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK. APRlE 12. 191'.i. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. .Tune 26. 1870. at the Post 
Office at New York. N. a.. under the Act of March 3. 1ST' 1 . 
No. 4529. 
Repopulate the Cleared Farms First 
A New England Experience 
AND FOR SOLDIERS.—We tire hearing much 
at the present time of vast reclamation projects 
involving millions of dollars, the purpose of which is 
r<> give employment to our returning soldiers and also, 
according to its enthusiastic supporters, effectually 
solve the high cost of living problem. The Countrg 
Gentleman of February 15 contains an interview 
given by Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, 
who appears to he the chief instigator and sponsor 
;if the proposition. The article is recklessly opti¬ 
mistic and the color scheme is properly worked out 
by a professional magazine writer. It deals in 
beginning to see the light, and are reducing their 
acreage so that the price of cotton shall not go below 
the cost of production. And yet with all of this in¬ 
disputable evidence before him. while the mail car¬ 
riers are miring their horses on the rural routes and 
while the heavy truck is waiting for good roads to 
take the produce from the now isolated farm to the 
railroad or city markets. Secretary Lane can see no 
better employment of labor than for the opening up 
of more land. In curtailing their crops these farmers 
of the South are the first to adopt those principles 
which hitherto have been applied only to other lines 
of business and which is. that the selling price 
should cover the cost of production. 
ABANDONED FARMS.—The deserted farms and 
some who chopped wood mi those hills later sold 
corn in the West for fuel. 
SPECIFIC CASES—The farms I refer to. how¬ 
ever. are of a different type: large, smooth, machine- 
worked fields, eight miles from railroad, with rural 
delivery and telephones. My first neighbor to leave 
was a “back-to-the-lander." He had been brought 
up on a farm, but early in life like many others, 
had gone to the city. He worked well on liis farm, 
and by the aid of his trade lasted five or six years, 
when his longing for the freedom of the farm was 
satisfied. Forty-dollar fertilizer and 40-eeut pota¬ 
toes had much to do with it. I think. Another back- 
to-the-land family were clearly misfits, at least the 
man was. ai.d wouid have lieen anywhere. !!»• did 
Mother and Daughter Taking Talc Easy in an Ohio Pasture. Fig. Hid 
glittering generalities, ami has all the alluring 
phraseology of promotion literature. 
A MISLEADING IMPRESSION.—A- we migh 
expect. Mr. Lane does not touch on the economic 
side of the question. He appears to think do 
many others, that the only way to reduce 
expenses is to produce more food. Why does not 
the Secretary also advocate the building and oper¬ 
ation of more shoe factories, cotton and woolen 
mills, as a further means of meeting the same end? 
A 
I: would be just as logical. He passes lightly over 
the fact that we already have millions of acres 
comparatively close to markets, all cleared, requiring 
no irrigation, now lying idle or only partially culti¬ 
vated. solely because the owners cannot operate them 
and get a new dollar for an old one. 
CURTAILING CROPS.—The cotton planters are 
half cultivated fields of the Eastern States bear 
mute testimony that the laborer has not been worthy 
of his hire, and that the ox that trod out the corn 
has been too long muzzled. I have some first-hand 
knowledge regarding abandoned farms, seven in my 
immediate neighborhood (including my own) having 
been vacated the past few years. One traveling 
through New England often sees without sensing 
where many a pathetic tragedy has taken place, for 
on many of its hillsides there is now only 
**A hole in the ground with lilacs round. 
A gnarled old apple tree. 
And a caved-iu well that’s left to tell 
Where a farmhouse used be.” 
These were the first to succumb to that unsym¬ 
pathetic law.’ "the survival of the fittest.” Perhaps 
not know how to work, aud his natural inclinations 
were not ii. that direction, so that accounts for 
vacancy No. 2. 
ANOTHER INSTANCE.—One that I was most 
sorry to see go was a hustling young farmer with a 
crop of bright youngsters coming on. Keen and 
practical, he could turn his hand to ’most anything, 
i.nd was always ready to help a neighbor in a pinch 
His barn was in bad shape, and for some time h 
had been planning on hniMii . •>. On fig¬ 
uring it out. however, he found that it would eos<- 
ns much or more than it would to buy a farti 
equally as good as his. all equipped with buildings 
so though ho had a very good house he sold bis farm 
to a neighbor for a pasture and bought another 
nearer railroad and schools. 
II \UD CONDITIONS.—There is somehow sort of 
