Salt Lake Tribune | 1914-03-08 | Page 6 | The "Utah Plan"

H o THE "UTAH PLAN." s Tho "Utah plan" of congregating the farmer fa village while the farm ,j i j j( laads were located at a distance has i ai " H been wrlttea about in magazines and MB I j talked about bj public speakers Tom w- ocean to ocean, and tho pioneers haTe i kft ' ? received ranch praise for their wisdom t in adopting the plan. In an early day, M'fjt ; when dangers were many and nodal li'lji ' $ rrivllejrea few, when the settlers In al I jf most any valley conld be counted on j the fingers, it wan nndoubt-edly wise I and beneficial for the few families to j dwell in iTnall communities rather than . to be nattered a mile or more apart j - on the farma. But the circumstances that Justified the village plan in pio-L pio-L neer days no longer exist, and the vil-r vil-r Ihro plan of Urine for farmers is as j great a detriment today as it was a JJ benefit at the time the country was nn-! nn-! settled. The small hamlets of 1850 hare be-! be-! come in many instances populous, while l the farm land has no tonants and there k . are practically no farm buildings to L bo seen in the agricultural valleys. , Hundreds of thousands pf dollars' north of- time and energy are annually A expended in hauling the farm produce A-M vL lo e homestead in the villnge. There !r3l ' lh m'cb ccms arc kept ia, crnmpod quarters and tho farm horses arc sta-bled sta-bled on the town lot. There thousands H of ton" of fertilizer is accumulated, and to ftcarcoly any of it ever finds its way to tho field. It is not nn uncommon hight jf to seo town corrals with fortilir.er three y fect docp and still piling up. Most of tho farm machinery, being rather unhandy un-handy to transport, is left out in the 4f field, as it is not convenient to hnul headers and binders nnd mowers over - ditches and along narrow roads from j6 the farm to tho village. There being I ft few or no sheds on the farms, the im-! im-! plouionts and machinery are exposed to the weather from ono season to tho 1 next. The lews nnd depreciation of ,f farm machinery from such cxposuro is fi more in dollars nnd cents each year than the actual use amounts to. Iiecnusc of absence) or division fences f there is generally an unequal sharing 2? in the fall and wiutor pasturage. But r VJt tho greatest evil of tho plan, wo be-j be-j ' Hove, is tho total absence of the farm ! j homo feature. The farmhouse and i kitehcu garden, the orchard nnd thb I pabturc, tho lawn and grovo iu front or at tho s'ulo, tho barns and granaries ' and sheds all that goes to make the oi typical farm home is lacking. The V young folk do not learn to love tho farm, for they never soo it except to a put in long hours of hard work in hay-1 hay-1 ing and harvesting. Tho villnge homes V, aro much alike aud too often serve only as a phu'o i'or tho young people to g oat and sleep. There is not that quiot, m reflective air that is found in the I TUT wcll-appointod farm homo. ' 3. Altogetlmr, we believe that the ii;! 3 - younger class of Utah f armors would - ? f:K 'L n,mcny to thoir advantage to jfe iffl mottle upon tho acres they intotwl to IS cultivate, and thero build farm homos JO od rear their families amid the boau-tW boau-tW 35 t5cs of a farm WCH 'rnd with tho Iff! n,aDi'0 blessings that cannot come to if! ia arrncr'9 faniily in a village.