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American Agriculturist, February 
Editorial Page of the American Agriculturist 
American 
Agriculturist 
Founded 1842 
Henry Morgenthau, Jr .Publisher 
E. R. Eastman .Editor 
Fred W. Ohm .Associate Editor 
Gabrielle Elliot .... Household Editor 
BlRGE Kinne .Advertising Manager 
H. L. VONDERLEITH . . . ' Circulation Manager 
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 
Herbert E. Cook .... Plow Handle Talks 
Jared Van Wagenen, Jr. . Van Wagenen Corner 
Herschel H. Jones . . . Market Department 
K. J. T. Ekblaw . Farm Engineering Department 
Paul Work .Vegetable Department 
George T. Hughes .... Investment Adviser 
Dr. S. K. Johnson .... Veterinary Adviser 
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Published Weekly by 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, INC. 
Address all correspondence for editorial, advertising, or 
subscription departments to 
461 Fourth Ave,, New York, N. Y. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, December 15, 1922, at the 
Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
Subscription price, payable in advance, $1 a year. 
Canadian and foreign, $2 a year. 
VOL. Ill February 3, 1923 NO. 5 
Corporation Farming Leads to 
Peasantry 
M r. MOSHER with his letter in the issue 
of December 30, started some interest¬ 
ing discussion on the advantages of corpora¬ 
tion farming. Judging by the lettep, some 
of which we are giving on the opposite page, 
our readers do not agree with Mr. Mosher. 
We do not agree with him, either. 
Cooperative or corporate groups are neces¬ 
sary for the best results in farm marketing, 
but God forbid that d^y shall ever come when 
the land is owned and farmed by large 
groups in large units; when the American 
farmer shall cease to work for himself or 
when opportunities shall cease for individual 
initiative and independent thought. The 
small farms and the millions of independent 
landholders have saved our country people 
from the peasantry of the Old World, made 
our republican institutions possible and 
America what she is. 
The Lesson From Europe 
T he mightiest lesson in cooperation the 
world has ever known is the way the Allied 
nations worked together to win the war, and, 
conversely, the best example of how not to 
cooperate is the failure of these same nations 
to work together for Reconstruction. 
There came a crisis during the war when 
any hesitancy on the part of the Allies to 
submerge their selfish individual desires for 
the common good would have been fatal to 
the civilization of the world, and we know 
that from the last soldier in the ranks to the 
supreme commander. General Foch himself, 
there was presented to the enemies of civi¬ 
lization a united, unbroken front. But, be¬ 
cause the story since the war has been dif¬ 
ferent, we came near another catastrophe 
which threatened to upset all that was gained 
by the thousands who died on Flanders fields. 
Since the war we have seen the sad spectacle 
of Italy trying to go it alone as an individ¬ 
ual, France and England airing an ancient 
grudge, and America believing in letting them 
quarrel it out among themselves. Because 
of dissension, Turkey, a once feeble and bank¬ 
rupt nation, has massacred Christians by the 
thousands and hundreds of thousands, re¬ 
conquered lost territory, succeeded in making 
individual treaties with Italy and France 
favorable to herself, and, worst of all, has 
succeeded in interesting the Bolshevists of 
Russia and the militarists of Germany in an¬ 
other plan to overthrow civilization. 
Farmers of America are this winter facing 
an economic situation similar to the politi¬ 
cal one in Europe. Faced by the economic 
troubles left by the war, they are uneasy and 
dissatisfied, and some are thinking that the 
solution of their marketing troubles is to be 
worked out with the middlemen alone as 
individuals instead of themselves coopera¬ 
tively. To these dissatisfied farmers, both 
in farm organizations and out, we point to 
the lesson in lack of cooperation and its de¬ 
plorable results which the once Allied nations 
present at the present time. 
Know Your Farm Leaders 
“TT OW many of your leaders do you 
JLJL know?” was the question recently put 
to American Agriculturist readers, and a pic¬ 
ture of the gathering at Syracuse, showing 
fifty or sixty New York State Farm Bureau 
Federation men for identification. 
The answer unfortunately seems to be 
“very few.” The lists submitted were sur¬ 
prisingly short; and ir. many cases the re¬ 
sults, it seemed, of out-and-out guess work. 
The first prize of $5 goes to.Frank Manders 
of Manin, New York.» The second of $2 to 
Mrs. Floyd Moot of Richmondville, N. Y., 
and one of $1 to Mrs. William H. Babb, 
Florida, New York. 
It is too bad that the men who are devoting 
their finest efforts to further the prosperity 
of our New York State farmers are so little 
known by the rank and file. “Know your 
Farm Leaders,” was the caption of the pic¬ 
ture—American Agriculturist repeats that 
phrase most urgently and hopes that by the 
time the next annual meeting of the State 
Farm Bureau Federation is held, the men 
and women on the farms, will at least have 
a “speaking acquaintance” with their leaders 
in this great work of cooperation and 
progress. ' _ 
Interstate Men Adopt Wise Policy 
W E.congratulate the members of the In¬ 
terstate Milk Producers’ Association 
upon their unanimous approval of the policy 
to increase the commission for the expenses 
of their organization from one cent a hundred 
to two cents a hundred. This organization 
with headquarters at Philadelphia is doing a 
fine work in its effort to secure for Pennsyl¬ 
vania farmers, fair prices for their milk, but 
its service can be greatly increased with 
more funds. The extra cent a hundred will 
enable the organization to employ additional 
testers and fieldmen and carry out new plans 
of work all the way along the line. 
* 
More Machinery — Less Men 
A FEW weeks ago we wrote an editorial ex¬ 
pressing the viewpoint of one of our 
readers to the effect that farm machinery 
had not made as much progress as inven¬ 
tions used in other business. 
Several correspondents think our reader 
was hasty in his conclusions and that as a 
matter of fact farm machinery has not only 
kept apace but considering the difficulties 
which it has had to overcome has actually 
outdistanced inventions in other trades. 
In this connection, Mr. Legge’s history in 
this issue of the wonderful development of 
farm machinery is of great interest. Cer¬ 
tain it is that farm machinery has been the 
chief reason why the American farmer with 
less and less man power has been able to 
nroduce more and more food. 
A Needed Law 
T he National Council of Farmer’s Co¬ 
operative Marketing Association which 
recently met in Washington, passed a resolu¬ 
tion which should have the support of every 
farmer and of Congress. The resolution 
asked for a national law requiring that on 
containers of any form for foreign agri¬ 
cultural products imported into this country 
should be conspicuously marked in English 
to indicate the name and nature of the 
contents of the package, the name of the 
country of origin and the date of original 
packing. 
The American public is learning more and 
more to buy established brands of food prod¬ 
ucts. Large quantities of fresh and dried 
fruits, eggs, tobacco, nuts, beans, butter, 
cheese, seeds and many other agricultural 
products are imported every year into this 
country in great quantities. While some of 
these products are of good quality, a good 
percentage do not conform to American 
standards of production and packing and 
child labor laws and compete with es¬ 
tablished American brands. It is impossible 
for the consumer to tell from the exterior 
appearance whether the goods are foreign 
or American grown. So-he is often getting 
a poor quality foreign article which he thinks 
is American grown. In many cases foreign 
goods are repacked in this country and 
offered for sale without mention being made 
of the foreign origin or exact quality of the 
products. A properly labeled package would 
not keep out the good foreign products, but 
would protect both producers and consumers 
in this country from poor quality foreign 
goods. _ 
Free Seeds Out at Last 
A fter nearly every farm leader and 
farm paper have worked for years to get 
Congress to give up the free seed nonsense, 
their distribution is to be at last discon¬ 
tinued. This will save the Government 
$360,000 a year. No real farmer ever re¬ 
ceived much good from the Government free 
seeds, but the politicians have bitterly fought 
to retain the privilege of using free seeds to 
repair their political fences. Town people 
got the bulk of the free seeds sent out. Thou¬ 
sands of packages went in the refuse; other 
thousands served only to start small back¬ 
yard gardens. Real farmers got the seeds 
for his crops from other sources, but those 
not familiar with the facts were under the 
impression that the free seeds policy was 
another one of the many ways in which the 
Government was showing class favoritism to 
farmers. __ 
Quotations Worth While 
Responsibility educates.—W endell Phil¬ 
lips. 
A Bible and a newspaper in every house, 
a good school in every district—all studied 
and appreciated as they merit—are the 
principal supports of virtue, morality and 
civil liberty.— Benjamin Franklin. 
:i: sjc 
The sun should not set upon our anger, 
neither should he rise upon our confidence. 
We should forgive freely, but forget rarely. 
I will not be revenged, and th’gyfowe to my 
enemy; but I will remember, ^HjjjMs I o^we 
to myself.— Colton. 
