L < >W-PRICED CROPS.—Tlic corn belt farmer is 
in a quandary. He wonders how he is 
going to pay his rent or meet interest and prin¬ 
cipal payments, taxes and other fixed expenses that 
must be met between now and March 1. Corn is 
selling for 40 cents per bushel; most of the oat crop, 
which was very poor, has been sold for less than a 
cent a pound, and with so much old corn carried 
over it is evident that there will be a very great 
differential between the selling price of old and new 
corn, which probably means, as one hard-headed 
farmer said to me, that “new corn will be selling 
around a quarter a bushel when the first of the crop 
is marketed.” There will be many forced sales; rent 
and interest and taxes must be paid. The tentative 
financing that the farmer was able to make last 
Spring must be placed or renewed on a more perma¬ 
nent basis, and there is no denying the fact that 
conditions are present that are of the greatest con¬ 
cern to the farming interests. 
LAND-OWNERS’ DIFFICULTIES.—It is not only 
the tenant who is in hard circumstances, but the 
land-owner as well has 
a problem. It will be 
remembered that many 
farms changed hands on 
false valuations, and 
that as much as $400 or 
$500 per acre was paid 
for improved farms. It 
was common practice to 
accept or make rela¬ 
tively small payments 
down, and frequently as 
much as 00 per cent of 
the purchase price was 
plastered on in the form 
of a mortgage or trust 
deed. The farmer who 
had 100 acres of land 
nearly paid for specu¬ 
lated by buying the ad¬ 
joining farm, and now 
t' aces the condition 
which necessitates that 
he mortgage both farms 
to their limit in order 
that he may meet his in¬ 
terest and the stipulated 
payments on the princi¬ 
pal. Farm mortgages 
are being executed at 8 
per cent, and it is com¬ 
mon practice for the in¬ 
vestment companies or 
banks through their 
various agencies to 
charge an additional 
two or five per cent 
commission for negotiat¬ 
ing the loan. Where 
$400 land is worked the owner is paying from $24 
to $.‘10 per acre in interest, which in itself is an 
exorbitant rental. Taxes and other fixed charges 
must be added, and many are finding that it takes 
more corn, oats and hay than the average acre will 
yield at present prices to meet the fixed charges, let 
alone the matter of labor or living expenses. 
A DARK FUTURE.—As a matter of fact, I be¬ 
lieve that the corn belt farmer is going to be in a 
tighter pinch next March than he was last March, 
and that many farm owners and tenants are really 
bankrupt right now. There are bound to be many 
disputes about rent collections this year, and many 
land-owners will have to adjust the contracts and 
leases for the fiscal year, else they will have the 
tenant’s corn to husk and market. In many cases 
the farmers were able to carry on this year on what 
they made or did not spend during the era of high 
prices for their products. Many are down now to 
bed rock, and are unable to meet their current ex¬ 
penses, and credit everywhere is hard to establish. 
I was told by a responsible banker in a county-seat 
town that out of $11,000,000 in land transactions 
that were negotiated last year and recorded in the 
recorder’s office over $9,000,000 went back as mort¬ 
gages! He said that more cases of voluntary bank¬ 
ruptcy were filed during the past three months than 
had been executed in the past three years. More 
farm sales, by this I mean closing-out sales, are 
listed in advance than ever before. 
THE RENTERS.—There is quite a brisk demand 
for farms to rent by men who used to live on farms, 
but who came to the city to work in the factory or 
shop during the war period. They are out of em¬ 
ployment, and their credit is gone in the city, and 
they know they can live rent free on the farm, even 
though jthey might not be 'able to pay the farm 
rental they are willing to offer. Really, they are 
going to the country for credit and a living that is 
now denied them in the city, while the old renter is 
coming to the city for the very reason that he cannot 
pay his rent in the country. 
EFFECTS OF SPECULATION.—Many of the 
farms which changed hands during the boom are 
not going to stay sold; rather the buyer, being 
unable to make regular installment payments of his 
obligation, will compel the former owner or the 
holder of the mortgage to foreclose. The speculators 
are in the worst predicament. One day they had 
visions of being wealthy; the next day they were 
land-poor. Now they are skirmishing around to 
make loans to pay the rent and taxes that they 
A Soldi* r's “Tin Hat ” Full of Poultru. FUj. - f p0 
expet fed this year's crop to meet, which the low 
prices prevented it from doing. The banks have 
very little money to loan and are urging the farmers 
to “go back to work” and “to get along with as little 
hired help and gasoline as possible.” The County 
Agents and commercial organizations are urging the 
farmer to get into the dairy business and to engage 
in more generalized farming and live stock opera¬ 
tions. pointing out that the selling of coarse grain 
and bay helps to make both the farmer and the farm 
poorer, and that they can well afford to feed such 
grain tit calves and pigs today at the present dif¬ 
ferential in values. 4’he farmer replies that he does 
not have the hogs to feed, and that he lias no money 
to buy them with, even if the squealers could be 
assembled, and adds that, hogs are apt to go down 
to corn price levels as soon as the finished animals 
are ready for market. 
THE STEADY WORKERS.—The farmers who did 
not speculate, but rather stayed on the job and 
raised their own colts, their own calves and pigs, 
and fed them out through thick and thin, are pros¬ 
perous, and will experience the soft end of the jolt. 
Nevertheless the things that the farmer must buy 
will have to come down, else the crops he has to 
sell must increase in value until both are on a com¬ 
parative basis. If one only knew which way the 
tide was to turn he might be in a position to offer 
helpful suggestions. As it is now the least one can 
do is to state the facts and conditions, and not wink 
blindly at a sorry and unfortunate circumstance. 
.Land values and rentals cannot help but come down 
to production values. 
WATERED 'STOCK.— It would seem that some of 
the so-called watered stock has broken out from oil 
and other business corporations and found quartet's 
on many farms. The only kind of stock that the 
farmer has any business in watering walks around 
on either two or four legs, and the sooner the farm¬ 
stead is drained of all other sorts the better it will 
be for both the owner, the tenant and the local mer¬ 
chant. Fifty-cent corn and 25-cent oats cannot, 
satisfy the owner or tiller of land who depends on 
the crops produced from year to year to pay either 
the interest or the rent. I know a farmer in Iowa 
who fed, shipped and sold finished steers in Chicago 
for four cents per pound, and who made money in 
the operation; but it was done at a time when the 
prices of all other products and equipment were in 
proportion. lie did not buy his potatoes from Michi¬ 
gan, his hams and bacon from the packer's, or main¬ 
tain a Ford car for bis hired man. Rather he raised 
what he fed and fed 
what he produced, and 
was satisfied with less 
elegance and excite¬ 
ment. lie went without 
those things that Lie 
could not p ay E o r 
promptly, and did not 
try to do the other fel¬ 
low, expected to work 
for what he saved, and 
a 1 w a y s managed to 
make some improve¬ 
ments or savings during 
the year. The hired 
man did a full day’s 
work for living wages, 
and long hours daunted 
neither the employer 
nor the employee, for 
both were imbued with 
that spirit of service 
accomplishment that has 
been shelved by tin; 
modern eiglit-liour-a-dav 
group, who attempt to 
work with a watch in 
one hand and endeavor 
to hold the job in the 
other itching palm. 
P R () D IT C T I O N 
COSTS.—It is evident 
on every hand that pro¬ 
duction costs on the 
farm have been greatly 
reduced this year, and 
that the corn belt fanner 
has seeded more grass 
seed, and made the 
necessary plans to produce more stock, and thus will 
sell less grain next year than usual. However, it 
will take time to go into either dairying or meat 
production on a scale that will lift one out of the 
present depression. Two full crops and more will 
be necessary ere the farmers will be able to get off’ 
the rocky coast. In the meantime it means work and 
more work, less buying, less gasoline, no speculating 
and a firm determination on the part of all farming 
interests to get back to their regular jobs in order 
that they might continue the practices and policies 
of live stock farming that have in reality made this 
great section of the country what it is today. 
Here’s to the corn belt farmer! May he grow 
more corn to feed more live stock to sell for more 
money so he can buy more land to raise more feed 
to feed more live stock. f. c. it. 
A Melon Thief, a Shotgun and a 
Jersey man 
E have been greatly interested in the account 
of Mr. Dakin against the melon patch icono¬ 
clasts. and vice versa, and thought it would interest 
him to know that we had a similar experience one 
day last week. We are congratulating ourselves 
that we used a single-barreled gun instead of a 
double. The reason for this is quite plain ; we did 
not own a double one. But we can assure Mr. Dakin 
or anyone else that a single gun with an extra long 
Hard Problem of the Corn Belt Farmer 
