American Agriculturist, December 6, l' ! 4 
W The Trouble Maker 
(Continued from page 399) 
out of the field. Nice driver you be,” 
returned Bill. “Can’t get out of a fifteen- 
foot gate without taking a whole section 
of the fence along with you!” 
“Some preacher ye be!” said another 
fellow. “Nice church language you were 
usin’ while you w r ere goin’ out of the 
field, wasn't you?” 
“Seems to me,” said another, smiling, 
“that you’re a little bit the worse for 
wear, Shorty. What did they do to you 
down at the blower this time?” 
“That's all right. Talk all you mind 
to,” said Shorty. “I said you couldn’t 
stick these horses, and you didn’t, in 
spite of all your meanness. Couldn't 
put on a load big enough to stick ’em. 
You’re nothin’ but a lot of lazy loafers 
anyway. We teamsters have to spend 
most of our time rid in’ back and forth 
’cause you fellers are too lazy to put on 
decent loads.” 
“All right. Shorty,” said Bill. “JVlebbe 
you’re right. This time we’ll give you a 
real load.” 
S UITING the action to the words, the 
men with a common impulse (began 
grabbing armfuls of corn and rushing 
them on the wagon again. They piled 
the corn high on the rigging and tangled it 
in every way possible until finally Shorty 
rushed again to the head of the load to 
hurry his horses away from his tormentors 
before they could put on any more. 
But this time, in spite of the fact that 
the powerful beasts strained forward faith¬ 
fully and together, the big load stirred not 
a foot. Again and again, Shorty urged 
them frantically, but they did their gal¬ 
lant utmost to no avail. 
Meanwhile, the corn continued going 
on the load all of the time and in any old 
way. Finally, unable to reach it up from 
the ground, because the load was so high, 
Bill jumped up on the rigging and took 
the corn from the men and piled it higher 
and ! igher. 
At last Shorty turned from his futile 
attempt to start his horses and in a rage 
began to throw the corn back off of the 
load. Bill ran toward him to stop him, 
and Shorty gave a mighty lunge, caught 
Mead off of his balance, and he rolled 
ignominiously off the load so that he 
struck the ground with a decided bump, 
amid the haw-haws of the men. 
Again the matter might have ended 
there, but Bill had had a drink or so of 
h ;rd cider that morning, and the fall off 
of the wagon and the laughter of the men 
made him ugly. He jumped to his feet, 
reached up, caught Shorty by the leg, 
pulled him roughly to the ground, then 
slapped him sharply in the face. 
I N the meantime, Jim Taylor had 
driven up and stood watching the 
performance while waiting to have his 
wagon loaded. He had noticed Bill 
climbing under Shorty’s wagon to chain 
the wheels so that the horses could not 
start the load, and he had laughed with 
the rest of the men when Shorty turned the 
tables by throwing Bill off on the ground. 
But when Bill pulled the little man 
roughly from the wagon and slapped him, 
Jim thought the matter had ceased to be 
a joke. 
“Hey there, Bill,” he called. “Pick 
someone your own size.” 
“Mind your own business,” shouted 
Bill, slapping Shorty again 
Jim jumped down from his wagon and 
ran up to the men. 
“You’d better cut it out, Bill,” he 
said. 
“Maybe you’d like the job of stoppin’ 
me!” 
“Well, that’s all right, Bill,” said Jim, 
speaking mildly. “I like fun just as well 
as anybody, but hitting a man that is 
smaller than you are in the face is no 
joke.” 
“That’s right,” said one of the other 
men. “That’s goin’ too far.” 
“You’re gettin’ too fresh lately, young 
feller,” said Bill. “You think you’re 
runnin’ this whole neighborhood, jest 
cause you hit that there milk dealer 
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when he wasn’t lookin’. You think 
you’re pretty smart, but here’s some¬ 
thin’ to show you you ain’t as smart as 
you think you be.” 
And without further warning, he 
smashed Jim squarely in the face and 
knocked him down. The men swarmed 
in between to prevent further trouble, 
and Jim got slowly to bis feet. 
“Stand aside, boys,” he said quietly. 
“I can’t let the matter rest here, and 
none of you will blame me if I don't.” 
T HE men stepped aside without 
further argument, and Jim showed 
what he had on his mind by taking off his 
coat and tossing it to one of the men. He 
had hardly done this before Bill rushed 
him. Jim swayed a little uncertainly on 
his feet and then stepped swiftly aside 
to avoid the rush. As Bill went by, 
propelled by his own momentum, Jim 
managed to land a good right on the side 
of Mead’s head". 
After this, they settled down to real 
business, circling each other for a 
moment, each watching alertly for an 
opening. Then they came together with 
a swift but equal exchange of compli¬ 
ments and parted, Bill with a missing 
tooth and Jim with nose spouting Wood. 
Again they stepped in', each landing 
blows which could be heard for rods; 
both men were becoming winded, but it 
was plain that Bill’s age and his occasional 
boozing were telling on liis staying power. 
He circled around the other and tried to 
gain time; Jim pressed his advantage 
and finally closed in a clinch and they fell 
together and rolled over and over in the 
sharp corn stubbles. 
When they ceased to roll, Jim was on 
top and stayed there, punching Mead 
whenever a free arm and an opening 
offered, until the other finally confessed 
that he had “had enough.” 
“Get under that wagon and unchain 
those wheels,” Jim ordered, and after a 
moment Bill slowly and painfi lly obeyed. 
Then turning to Shorty, Jim said: 
“Now, you fool, pull out of lure and see 
if you know enough to keep your mouth 
shut in the future.” 
(Continued next week) 
The Outlook for Farm Land Values 
(Continued from page SS9 ) 
keep up a lot of forced sales of land, most 
of which went into the hands of mort¬ 
gage holders at prices below the figure at 
which solvent farmers would be willing to 
sell. The unprofitable returns from farm¬ 
ing have encouraged farmers to leave the 
land and go to the cities, increasing the 
amount of land for sale and reducing the 
number of buyers. 
Local taxes are extremely high because 
of public improvements started several 
years ago. The cost of government and 
maintenance of schools is high. Investiga¬ 
tions seem to show that farm lands are 
taxed relatively higher than town and 
city real estate. Land economists point 
out the disadvantage that farmers are 
under by being taxed on land valuations, 
while other business is taxed chiefly on 
its income. Recently, the ownership of a 
farm has not meant that the owner had 
any income out of which to pay taxes. 
High taxes tend to discourage investment 
in farm land in contrast with the many tax 
exempt securities available to the in¬ 
vestor. 
This resume of the conditions which 
have prevailed in the past and which 
exist in the immediate present leads di¬ 
rectly to some conclusions, or impressions, 
as to the future of farm land values. 
The drift of population to the cities is 
reducing the number of food producers 
and adding to the number of food con¬ 
sumers. Furthermore, our total popula¬ 
tion is gaining at the rate of about \]/ 2 
per cent a year. Government officials 
estimate that we will have about 150 
million people to support by 1950. 
These factors in the long run will dimin¬ 
ish the volume of farm products that must 
be forced on foreign markets. Unless the 
efficiency with which our land is used is 
raised, agricultural production in the 
United States will be practically on a do¬ 
mestic basis in fifteen or twenty years. 
When that time comes, assuming that our 
farmers have tariff protection, the buying 
power of our urban population will domi¬ 
nate in the setting of farm prices rather 
competition in international markets with 
the new countries of the world having low 
production costs. 
This would mean a return of conditions 
similar to those that prevailed from 1897 
to 1915. Eventually this might lead to 
enough advance in prices of farm products 
and enough change in relative prosperity 
between the farm and the city to turn 
the tide of population to the country 
again and stimulate agricultural produc¬ 
tion. But in any case, farm land prices 
would probably advance. 
It will be possible to increase the 
amount of land in cultivation and farm 
the present area more intensively, but this 
Will only be done in response to higher 
prices for farm products and under con¬ 
ditions that will tend to elevate farm land 
prices. 
* * * 
Do you stop, look, and listen at gradi 
crossings? 
