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Show DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PRICKS THE SMALL FARM BUBBLE. In the last few years tho small farm movement hns been fairly epidemic. "A Living Off An Acre" or "A Few Acres nnd Liberty." These have been tho slogans of n multitude of books, pamphlets and magazine articles. Nor have concrete con-crete cxnmples been lacking to support the theorist. the-orist. Tho bank clerk with a growing fnmily and tuberculosis hns put his hundred dollars into the first payment on a ten-acre farm, moved his household goods to the land, lived in the open air, spaded nnd hoed and cultivated and, nt the end of a few years, owned his property clenr of encumbrance, en-cumbrance, put in n bathroom, bought an automobile auto-mobile and on top of it nil, regained his health. Then, too, we hnvo tho spectacle of the widow left penniless with n growing family, who, hoarding hoard-ing nnd saving, has bought a little tract of land nnd nfter a fow years Is giving her boys n college education and tucking away her savings in a fat bank account. Docs this sort of talk allure tho city mnn? Rather, Particularly it appeals to the tired business busi-ness mnn, who sees in the ownership of a little farm freedom from petty harrassments nnd, more thnn that, an easy road to wealth. Tho cruel department of agriculture, which delights In cold, crushing figures, hns, however, just pricked the small farm bubble. Exhaustivo investigation in-vestigation hns led to the conclusion thnt "under conditions which prevail on tho average- American Ameri-can faun, tho opportunity for making n satisfactory satis-factory profit varies directly with tho number of acres farmed. Tho fewer the acres, the higher tho cost of cultivation nnd tho smaller the gross income. Very small fnrms, furthermore, nre difficult dif-ficult to make successful anywhere, nnd it is only tho exceptional man who is equal to the task. Nor is Intensive farming the profit making certnlnty it has been represented. Prices for the products of intensive farming nre found to fluctuate fluc-tuate greatly, making results very uncertain. The farmer distant from his mnrkets will often find thnt when prices nro low transportation charges wipo out his prospective profits. Even in the Immediate vicinity of good mnrkets, intensive in-tensive farmlnu is dependent on local advantages. |