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the farm for one third or one fourth of the crops instead of for cash, as had been the former owners' method. This percentage plan stimulated the renters to such efforts that Mrs. Mathis's share rose at once to $1,200 a year instead of $500, which the owners had formerly got. For the first two years the renters used the land between the young trees of the orchard, paying enough rent for it to cover the additional expense of hoeing. The fourth year (1908) the first crop from 2,500 peach trees brought a clear profit of $1,300, despite losses caused by rain.

In 1908, Mrs. Mathis sold one third of the farm - mostly timber land - for $20 an acre. She brought part of the rest of the farm into cultivation and succeeded in keeping her rent returns up to $1,200 a year. In the spring of 1911, she sold the remaining two thirds at $40 an acre.

From rent, crops, and sale of the land, Mrs. Mathis received altogether considerably more than $30,000. Her original Her original investment was less than $5,000 and her total investment was about $8,000. Her net profit was about $25,000 or, distributed over the six years, about $4,000 a year. Mrs. Mathis is now successfully managing a new investment in farm lands in another part of Alabama.

Her experience illustrates the possibilities for success upon the soil that open to women who possess sound judgment, agricultural skill, executive capacity, and capital. But it illustrates, also, and even more aptly, the way in which many large farm successes in the United States have been made, viz.: by selling the farm after it has been tilled so profitably that other people desire it — and taking as profit the increase in value over its original cost. According to the last census, the average value per acre of all farm lands in the United States increased 108 per cent. between 1900 and 1910. Individual states showed such astonishing increases as Texas, 209 per cent; Oregon, 213 per cent.; Oklahoma, 246 per cent.; South Dakota, 249 per cent.; Montana and Idaho, 276 per cent.; and Arizona, 475 per cent. Such increase in values, brought about by the

pressure of population upon the available supply of land, has been typical of every region of the country as it has reached its turn to be the frontier of cheap land.

But these fluctuations cease when the land is all brought under profitable cultivation. Thus in Pennsylvania the increase in value from 1900 to 1910 was only 14 per cent. For this reason the time is rapidly approaching when the sole profit from the soil will come from skilful cultivation and economical marketing. Hence the eagerness with which farmers are studying scientific agriculture, cooperative selling, and community land credit systems, to help make the profits that soon can no longer be made merely from land speculation.

This experience points to a way to make money. But only a part of it points to the way of sound and permanent development of the country. The land that is sold this year for twice what it brought last year - such a transaction adds nothing to the wealth of the Nation. It chiefly measures the rate of diminishing opportunity of the land-hungry.

The WORLD'S WORK is especially interested in helping to serve the broader development of American agriculture that will follow the national understanding of the general principles which underlie these constructive devices to facilitate permanent improvements in farming. One of its editors is devoting a large share of his time to an exhaustive study of land credits, for in the ability to command ready money for productive farm uses lies the hope of stability and independence in a life on the land. The WORLD'S WORK will devote much space to this subject. All of its readers who are anxious to help this great movement for the upbuilding of the basic industry of the Nation can render a genuine service by placing at his disposal such facts as the rates of interest on farm loans in their neighborhoods and especially such incidents from real life as the story of men or communities that have solved, even in part, the problem of coöperative credit among farmers.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT FARM LANDS

81.-Q. An article in the December WORLD'S WORK states that land can be bought in northern Arkansas for $12 an acre and upward. From whom can I get information about such land?

A. The Commissioner of Immigration, Little Rock, Ark.; F. S. White, St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad, Springfield, Mo.; L. D. Bell, Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad, Eureka Springs, Ark.; and William Nicholson, Kansas City Southern Railway, Kansas City, Mo.

82.-Q. I want a blunt, impartial opinion of some land I have purchased in Harris County, Texas. I am told the climate and soils are good and if so I want to settle there.

A. Our chief criticism is of your inexcusable and unwise purchase of land that you had not seen. No outsider's opinion can take the place of a personal inspection. Harris County is about on the dividing line between the wooded country of southeast, and the prairie country of southwest, Texas. Although it is uniformly level, the soil conditions and natural vegetation vary greatly. Vegetables, rice, cotton, corn, small fruits, figs, Satsuma oranges, hogs, and cattle are raised in various parts of the county, but we cannot say for which your particular land may be best fitted. Drainage is often needed

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83.-Q. I am a successful instructor in engineering, getting $1,700 a year with good prospects for the future. I enjoy the work and am satisfied except that I am not entirely well and would prefer outdoor work. We own 160 acres of rough timbered land in Arkansas and, if I gave up my work, could move to it with about $5,000 capital. I know a little about agriculture, but my wife was raised on a farm and we both like country life. We would not expect to farm on a large scale — just to make a living. Do you think we ought to try it?

A. Frankly, no. You are happy, satisfied, and making good headway in an honorable occupation for which you have been educated and trained. Your health problem is presumably one of habit, calling for more exercise and a better arrangement of your time. A

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84.-Q. What are the possibilities of apple raising and sheep raising in the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts?

A. Natural conditions are good and ultimately these types of farming, as well as general stock raising, should prove profitable. At present, however, the development of large estates by wealthy persons has caused abnormally high prices; many of these "amateur farmers" dispose of their surplus products at prices which cannot be expected to pay, thus spoiling the market for practical farmers. The havoc wrought by uncontrolled dogs is a serious obstacle to sheep raising; and, in upland orchards, the injury done by deer occasionally assumes threatening proportions. If these difficulties can be avoided or surmounted, the problem becomes merely one of scientific, business-like farming.

85.-Q. I have an opportunity to buy 400 acres in Leon County, Texas, west of the Trinity River. What of climatic and agricultural conditions there?

A. Thirty-nine inches of rain annually, long, warm summers, mild winters with only occasional cold spells and north winds, and fertile, level soils (sometimes requiring drainage) all contribute to the successful raising of a variety of crops, of which cotton, corn, hay, and peanuts are at present the most important. Marketing is not so easy, as much of the country is inconveniently distant from railroads. On this account and because of its soil-building value, stock should be kept. The value of farm land is increasing, although it is still only $7.84 an acre. About half the land of the county is utilized by its 2,863 farms, of which 52 per cent. are rented. The wisdom of your prospective purchase depends upon the exact location of the land and also upon the price you must pay.

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LEWIS E. THEISS

LEWIS R. FREEMAN 201 206

ARTHUR W. PAGE 220

TRADE SCOUTS WHO CAPTURE MILLIONS
THE Y. M. C. A.— MAKER OF MEN (Illus.)
THE NOVELS THAT SELL 100,000 (Illustrated)
THE TRUTH ABOUT "THE LITTLE RED SCHOOL"
A YEAR IN A COUNTRY SCHOOL
THE MARCH OF THE CITIES
FORWARD TO THE LAND -

OREGON ORGANIZING COUNTRY CHILDREN

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228 WILLIAM H. HAMBY 229

236

238

MUSA GEER 239

TERMS: $3.00 a year; single copies, 25 cents. For Foreign Postage add $1.28; Canada 60 cents.
Published monthly. Copyright, 1913, by Doubleday, Page & Company.

All rights reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Garden City, N. Y., as second-class mail matter

Country Life in America

CHICAGO

The Garden Magazine - Farming

GARDEN CITY
N. Y.

S. A. EVERITT, Treas. RUSSELL DOUBLEDAY, Sec'y

1118 Peoples Gas Bldg. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY,

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THE

WORLD'S WORK

JUNE, 1913

VOLUME XXVI

NUMBER 2

A

THE MARCH OF EVENTS

WINTER of wars abroad and political upheaval at home, followed by more wars abroad and floods and tariff revision at home, contrary to precedent brings a busy summer. In spite of the many disturbing occurrences and the more numerous threatened disturbances, the United States is enjoying a more than average prosperity. It is exhibiting anew its fundamental strength.

Yet there is not a buoyant mood among those who direct the great enterprises of the country. The incoming of the Wilson Administration is the first step in a far more fundamental change than merely the changing of the governmental machinery from one group of men to another. For fifty years the criterion by which the United States judged itself was business. If a measure were good for business, it was good for the country; if it were bad for business, it was bad for the country.

To change the standard by which the country judges itself from the narrower classification of the special welfare of business to the broad foundation of the welfare of the consuming man-to do this without destruction and without animosity requires a man of patience and

quiet courage. It is our good fortune that President Wilson is such a man.

Enlightened self-interest has brought a large proportion of business to believe in this new standard; for, after all, behind every business is a man, a part of the great mass upon whose real prosperity all firm business prosperity rests.

But, however beneficial and necessary the change itself, the process is disturbing. New tariffs and new laws for business interrupt the even flow of daily transactions. The business world as a whole feels that it would be false to the past if it were not a little apprehensive of the future, and our corporate affairs will therefore be managed conservatively. And this conservatism among business men and a sober, almost solemn, feeling of responsibility that pervades the Administration at Washington augur well for a careful and considerate carrying out of the changes which the public has demanded.

In the meanwhile, the railroads, the factories, and the farms are busy, especially the farms. The unprecedented fruitfulness of the land forced a good year upon a doubting public and it now seems as if nature this year again is plentifully coming to our aid.

Copyright, 1913, by Doubleday, Page & Co. All rights reserved

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