690 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
l 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
We had begun to think Spring had 
really come. The'snow melted, the ice 
on the roads mostly disappeared, and the 
bare ground could be seen. Here and 
there on the lawn there came a faint tinge 
of green. After about two months of 
idleness, the car came out of Winter quar¬ 
ters and began eating gasoline once more. 
One member of the family rejoiced at that. 
It was Brownie, the little sorrel horse. 
She was compelled to do about all our 
“running around” while the roads were 
bad. She is tired, and no wonder. Our 
fertilizer came, and we were able to haul 
it home in the truck. Then, as we 
thought Spring was near at hand.- there 
came another whirling storm, _ and the 
ground is once more white with snow. 
Never was there a season like this one, 
even in the year of the great, blizzard. 
In former seasons at this time we have 
been plowing or preparing to seed oats. 
I look for an abnormal Summer—very 
likely a season of hot, dry wij^^ fob 
lowed by wet, soggy and sullen oays. 
* * * * * 
All through this country farm opei-a- 
tions are not only at a standstill, but are 
falling behind. Many stalks are still out 
in the field. We have a' great pile of 
wood back of the house, but have been 
unable to saw it up. No manure has 
been hauled out. Part of the pruning 
has been done, but there has been no 
chance to put on the dormant spray. We 
found something over 200 fine apple trees 
gnawed bv the mice, and there are doz¬ 
ens of other things to put us back. All 
this, added to the uncertainty of labor, 
will make farming in our section very 
mu eh of a gamble this year. As a rough 
estimate, I would put the reduction of 
food grown in this section at 25 per cent 
at least. Poultry-keeping is gaining, and 
there will be more eggs and meat, but 
there will be a heavy falling off in such 
staples as rye, sweet corn, potatoes and 
truck crops. Some of our city friends 
will sav I am acting now as a prophet of 
evil. There are times when whoever tells 
the truth will be accused of quitting or 
“knocking.” Those of us who must face 
the actual farm situation know that the 
outlook is not bright. 
if T -r 
And yet it' ought to be. if the world-old 
ruie of supply and demand were in work¬ 
ing order. I think we are sure to have 
hi°li prices for everything \ye can raise 
in° this country. The nation faces a 
shortage of food, and the large Eastern 
cities are full of money. People will pay 
the price for fine corn, potatoes, tomatoes, 
fruit or whatever we have to sell. Every 
dav I see people who. a few years ago. 
figured the price of cornmeal mush, now 
buying high-priced cuts of meat or ex¬ 
pensive vegetables. Families which for¬ 
merly bought low-grade prunes now insist 
on having grape fruit! There is money 
to buv and money to burn, and those vbo 
can produce the food and get it ^ose^up 
to the consumer may expect a golden liai 
vest this vear. The trouble is that most 
people cannot produce as they would like- 
because they cannot secure labor, and 
hesitate to borrow the capital needed to 
run a farm this year. 
***** 
The law of supply and demand does 
not work any longer, except in some 
special cases, where the producer can get 
right next to the consumer For ex¬ 
ample. we shall run out of hay before 
June, and several tons must be bought. 
Local prices run close to P ei 
Yet within 106 miles, or a little more, 
farmers have their barns stuffed with 
hay which they are unable to ship. They 
cannot obtain any ears, tnougli empty 
freight cars are to be seen hanging about 
every large station, and it is said that 
the South is filled with them. 1 hese 
farmers must sell their hay in order to 
pay their bills, and thus obtain credit for 
this season’s supplies: but they areheld 
Up and cannot ship, while we are held up 
for extortionate prices when we must 
buv. For years now we have been told 
that the increased use of trucks and cais 
would drive the horses out of a *> b - a “j} 
thus make hay so cheap that it could 
hardly be given away. Then we were 
told that, in order to be fully efficient 
those of us who grow fruit and truck 
should not attempt to grow hay and grain 
but buv feed from the farmers farther 
back, who cannot grow fruit and truck. 
\11 this seemed reasonable at: the time 
to those who believe in the law of sup¬ 
ply and demand, but it has not worked 
out True, the trucks and cars have re¬ 
duced the number of horses yet hay is 
higher than ever before. Me have tried 
to be “efficient” by depending on distant 
hav farmers for our supply with the re¬ 
sult that, while the hay crop is larger 
than ever, we cannot get our supply, and 
farmers cannot sell or ship. M e are 
worse off than when we raised our own 
feed, and many of us must go back to 
the old plan. 
***** 
Who is responsible for all this trouble? 
We are partly so for believing that sup¬ 
ply and demand is a fixed law. We now 
find that is a “fixed” law that is fixed up 
and manipulated by those who have 
charge of distribution. I think the Gov¬ 
ernment, in its control of the railroads, 
has discriminated against such people as 
the hay farmers. I think certain sections 
of the country have had plenty of cars, 
while others have been denied. There 
ought to be a fairer distribution, now that 
the roads have gone back to private con¬ 
trol, for each road must now give fair 
service if it is to survive. I also think 
the law of supply and demand has been 
violated bv the big distributing interests 
for a purpose. It seems to me that most 
of the men who should have prevented 
this discrimination have either aided it or 
looked the other way while it was going 
on. While this has been practiced for 
many years, it came to a head during the 
war through the policy of Mr. Hoover 
and other “big men” who had charge of 
the nation’s affairs. They started out 
with the idea that whatever else hap¬ 
pened. the workmen in town and city 
must be provided for and kept good- 
natured. Thus the consumers were given 
every advantage in the industrial race. 
The farmers had always represented a 
patient and patriotic class, content with 
plain living and plain buncombe. The 
organized workmen got the advantage; 
the unorganized farmers got the ax. "What 
we are suffering from now is the logical 
result of this policy. Town and city 
naturally took advantage of their op¬ 
portunity. and money flowed in freely. 
The average, man will usually go where 
he thinks he can have the best chance— 
or where his family think for him. This 
fearful Winter in the country hgs been 
very hard on many women, and the lack 
of transportation has discouraged many 
men. They are simply going to towns 
where they can earn more cash. Many 
of them will be unhappy and worse off 
than they are now. but they are pulled 
out of their true places by an irresistible 
force which Mr. Hoover and the other 
big men started three years ago. Before 
long these men, or many of them, will be 
left stranded in the city, but the psycho¬ 
logical result now working out will put 
them in the ranks of the neople who 
curse the farmers and work to cut down 
the producers’ price of food. 
***** 
I do not pretend to be any “big man.” 
or any statesman, but it seemed entirely 
clear to us at the time that the policy 
of feeding organized labor on profit and 
the farmers on patriotism would result 
just as events are now working. It was 
far worse than “class legislation,” be¬ 
cause it was class inspiration. It did 
nothing to give farmers any real pride 
or satisfaction in th^- work. No nation 
can ever prosper so'^mng as a great agri¬ 
cultural class must feel that it cannot 
compete in the labor market with other 
industries. You notice that the Agricul¬ 
tural Department and the rest of the of¬ 
ficials are not calling upon farmers to in¬ 
crease production! Yet they know that 
there is greater need of such increase than 
there ever was, even during the war. 
They do not dare to press such a cam¬ 
paign of advice, because they know what 
is rankling in the hearts of the farmers, 
and what thousands of them are going to 
do. The “big men” who started all this 
were too big and too “efficient” for their 
jobs. They filled the pockets of town 
workmen with cash, but filled the hearts 
April 3, 1920 
of too many farmers with a sense of in¬ 
justice. We shall find that no man can 
eat money. With all its wonders, science 
cannot equal sweat at the job of feeding 
the nation. 
***** 
Now. whenever I talk in this way I am 
lectured by some excellent men, who say 
farmers were never better off. and that 
all such talk encourages anarchy and dis¬ 
content. One man has called me a Bol¬ 
shevik for saying that farmers will work 
up to tin* limit of their families and let it 
go at that. Personally, I do not know 
what that Russian word means, and I 
judge that many who throw it around at 
random know less than I do, for I have 
read what I could find about the Russian 
revolution. I think that, like the French 
Revolution, it will result in a better 
Russia. That, however, has little to do 
with this discussion, except that the Rus¬ 
sian revolution resulted from the efforts 
of a class to "sit. on the lid” and prevent 
any reasonable discussion of actual in¬ 
justice. I think openly and squarely that 
the policy of the group of "big men” who 
ran the nation’s business during the war 
plastered a great injustice upon agricul¬ 
ture. It hurts to pull any plaster off, 
but this one has got to come. I know 
that many, farmers will find this the most 
profitable season they have ever known. 
They are the men with abundant capital, 
a good labor supply and a location where 
they can distribute direct to the consumer. 
There is big money in sight for such men. 
Others not so situated cannot take full 
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