306 
New York Central Lines carry one-tenth of the com¬ 
merce of the country. Upon their efficient perform¬ 
ance through the winter depend the comfort and wel¬ 
fare of millions of people. 
Food, fuel and other necessities—the raw materials 
of industry must be kept moving hour after hour 
in all kinds of weather to prevent the slowing up of 
industry and human suffering. Reserves would 
quickly vanish if the railroads failed. 
New York Central Lines have made ready for the 
winter. Reserves of cars and locomotives, standing 
idle all summer, are now being called upon to move 
the crops, fuel supplies and raw materials. Box cars 
for grain, open cars for coal, special refrigerator cars 
for perishable products—a quarter of a million cars 
bearing the familiar mark of the New York Central 
Lines—are moving over the country. Road beds, brid¬ 
ges, signals—all are ready for the demands of winter. 
And 175,000 men of the New York Central family, on 12,000 
miles of lines from the Mississippi Valley to the Atlantic Coast 
—the men who operate the New York Central Lines —they, too, 
are ready for the test. They have a tradition of public service 
to maintain—a tradition that has grown up through nearly a 
century of railroad achievement. 
NEW YORK CENTRAL LINES 
BOSTON &ALBANY-MICHIGAN CENTRAL-BIO FOUR - PITTSBURGH &LAKE ERIE 
AND THE NEW YORK CENTRAL AND SUBSIDIARY LINES 
Agricultural Relations Department Offices 
New York Central Station, Rochester, N. Y. 
La Salle St. Station, Chicago, Ill. Michigan Central Station, Detroit, Mich. 
466 Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y. 68 East Gay St., Columbus, Ohio 
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When writing to advertisers , be sure 
to mention the American Agriculturist 
American Agriculturist, November 1, 1924 
A Bird’s-Eye View 
{Continued from 'page 301 ) 
has been the drift of dairying into “ mar¬ 
ginal’' territory of the West and South. 
Men who have been at their wits’ end 
to make any income at all have turned 
to the dairy cow, and in many cases with 
some profit. Not all of them will stick 
to dairying now that cotton, wheat and 
various irrigated crops are selling at 
higher prices again. But it is probably 
true not only that the United States will 
ultimately support a much larger dairy 
industry than we now have, but that 
many areas in the West and South which 
have been following essentially exploitive 
systems of farming must slowly give these 
over in favor of the more conservative 
systems. In hard times the exploitive 
systems feel the pressure. 
Almost everywhere farms are beginning 
to sell once more; a hopeful sign. Noth¬ 
ing but hard-boiled adversity could make 
the farm real estate market so stagnant 
as it has been in the last three years. 
Among other things, there are enough 
city buyers of farm property to make that 
a noteworthy item. Farm values are low 
enough to attract city money, which in 
turn is evidence of the constant tendency 
of economic forces to balance things up. 
There is apparently little movement 
away from the farms this fall compared 
with a year or two ago. This is a reflec¬ 
tion both of the easier position of agricul¬ 
ture and of the tapered-off condition of 
urban industry. 
Indeed, it now seems as though agricul¬ 
ture is almost a few laps ahead of the 
urban community in respect to certain 
basic adjustments. The cities have this 
year experienced what was brought home 
to farmers more than a year ago; that it is 
possible to temporarily over-expand the 
producing plant and that liquid capital 
disappears in the process. Urban indus¬ 
try has had its boom; has flooded the 
country with such required goods as 
houses, automobiles, textiles and so on. 
Now consumers are mostly supplied and 
mostly in debt. The latter part of the 
business boom has been accompanied by 
a veritable orgy of “partial payment.’’ 
Spot the nearest householder or auto¬ 
mobile owner in town and you have a 
debtor. 
But among farmers, the entire emphasis 
has shifted over to rigid economy. All 
over the country farmers are straining 
every nerve to get their financial obliga¬ 
tions fixed up and swearing never again 
in this generation to contract a dollar of 
new debt. This sort of thing is notice¬ 
able this fall. It is part of the cycle from 
bad times and low price level back up to 
prosperity again. In the current picture, 
it is part of the leveling-up process be¬ 
tween city and country. 
It may be that for a considerable period 
agriculture will stand at some disparity 
with urban industry. But for the moment 
—this fall—it is swinging up toward par, 
and the readjustment is a mighty healthy 
one for the country. Not in five years 
has the United States presented so nearly 
a picture of balanced prosperity as it 
does now. The more deeply that fact 
sinks home to us all, the longer it is likely 
to last. 
This Farmer Says Bank Credit Not Practical 
{Continued from page 300 ) 
selling cheaply for cash and charging 
for credit. 
As regards borrowing from the bank, 
it is true that many banks require an 
endorser. In most cases, however, this 
more or less rigorous requirement for 
two names on a note can be made satis¬ 
factory by having one’s wife endorse his 
note. No man can object to this. His 
wife certainly ought to know what his 
business affairs are and if she does know 
she will help and scheme to get the notes 
paid. Of course, a farmer should be will¬ 
ing to tell his banker frankly in regard to 
his financial position. This involves 
furnishing the banker with a confidential 
credit statement from time to time to 
show him what one is worth above his 
debts. I cannot see any reason why a 
farmer should refuse to do this. The man 
whom I ask to loan me money certainly 
has a right to know what my financial 
position is other than from general infer¬ 
ence from what he knows about me. If 
Mr. W. is a sound farmer of financial 
responsibility, and 
if his local bank 
will not accept 
his note for a rea¬ 
sonable amount 
with his wife’s sig¬ 
nature, I would 
like to know it. 
The bankers’ 
associations have 
expressed a very 
cordial wish to co¬ 
operate with us in 
every possible 
way. Banker- 
Farmer Confer¬ 
ences have been 
held in many 
counties in New 
York at which I 
have discussed the 
principles brought 
out in the article 
which you printed 
last week. Invari¬ 
ably the response 
has been cordial. 
Right now the 
Agricultural Com¬ 
mittee of the New 
York State Bank¬ 
ers’ Association has 
asked us for ways in 
which they can be helpful in agriculture. 
If there are any regions in New York 
where bankers are not meeting the legiti¬ 
mate needs of sound farmers I would like 
to know about it. Perhaps here is a real 
service for your paper. There are a few 
such banks. I know of one or two. If the 
need is great enough it might be wise to 
organize another bank or a cooperative 
credit association under the new coop¬ 
erative law. In any event, I am glad to 
see you take an interest in this farm credit 
situation. The need for more efficient 
credit is great and better methods can 
only be brought about by a campaign of 
education in which farm papers such as 
yours play a very important part. I shall 
be glad to have your answer to these 
suggestions.—W. I. Myers. 
First Ag. School in New York 
HE Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 
has just celebrated the hundredth 
anniversary of its foundation. T his is one 
of the oldest and the best technical 
schools in the country, and it is particularly 
interesting to 
farmers to know 
that it was the first 
institution of the 
others in N ew 
York to establish 
a course in agri¬ 
culture. 
Mr. Ebenezer 
Emmons, who was 
graduated from the 
agricultural course 
in this institution 
in 182G, founded 
the first State de¬ 
partment of agri¬ 
culture in this 
State. Asa Fitch, 
Jr., who was grad¬ 
uated from the ag¬ 
ricultural course in 
1827, founded in 
New York the first 
bureau of ento- 
mology, and 
GeorgeEmillCook, 
who completed his 
work in the in¬ 
stitute in 1839, es¬ 
tablished the New 
Jersey Experiment 
Station, one of the 
first in America. 
Friend: What have you taken out of your 
garden this summer, Jones? 
Jones {sadly): Three boys, a stray cow and 
miscellaneous chickens.— Life. 
