Show SMALL TOWNS USA improved system of 0 social reforms ra are major needs nee s by EARLE HITCH re eased by features the small community must be regarded asa as a cross section of our common life with economic and cultural resources which will satisfy all the major needs and cravings of most men that thesis expressed by dr arthur E morgan one of the leading U S authorities on the values of small community I 1 fe formed the basis of the comma 0 finity development plan instituted at tupelo miss the plan now in its second year of operation and hailed as a model in revitalizing ru ral communities rural america has resulted in at stake development of the resources in the a area r e a sur no 6 rounding tupelo in a series on a wide scale 1 the region emi braces five lous counties with a total tion of approximately diversify farming most of the agricultural prodie tion comes from small family type farms arms on which cotton has been the main source of income but cotton has been hard on the land also it has ts ups and downs as a money crop so the small farmers around tupelo are being introduced to an improved system of agriculture the land is suited to intensive culli and a general program to bu id up the land Is proceed ng what is being done at tupelo is worth the notice of small farm corn com mun t es everywhere the best thing about the tu pelo plan is this it is practical tl TI e difficulties as well as the needs have been taken into con sid cration and the goals have been fixed accordingly the plan does not expect to accomplish everything in a day it is based on a policy that is doing two highly desirable things at the same time it is achieving some immediate results and laying foundations for more important results in the future interest in the farmers problems is not new in tupelo the banks the bus newsmen and the daily journal tupelo s forward look ng per for 3 ears have zed the importance of making farming pay a good return thirty years ago when the boll weevil did heavy dam age n the cotton patches the banks began pramot ng dairying for years the daly da ly journal has been campa agn ng rig tor for better agriculture the he farmers have been urged to look took after their so Is and to con sider growing th beside cotton recalls pitfalls of past this campaign has had the per bonal interest and a great deal of the tune of the da ly journal s energetic sher slier george me mc lean two years ago when mclean returned from war service with the navy he remembered the troubled times on farms after world war I 1 and during the depression he was aware that cotton again might bump up against a ning market he knew too that mechanization was not riot far away and that the small farmers would be at a disadvantage when machine production is fully established mclean ned to make a careful study of the whole farm outlook as it affected the tu pelo reg on he employed at the expense of his newspaper a professional farm management organization to make a study of all the problems and what could be done about them this was undertaken by the doane agricultural service of st louis the outstanding agency in the farm management field the survey was completed and the report filed about a year ago get trained leader the report was laid before a meet ing of farm and business leaders and a sponsoring organization was formed to back a program tor for build ing up resources of the five counties which winch had been surveyed this or gamza tion became the rural devel 0 NEW HERD SIRE imported from the isle of jersey with the 20 heifers was clemence s boy a new addition to bulls of the tupelo area artificial insemination association council the daily journal furnished the money and a trained agriculturalist was employed to di the program with head in the tupelo chamber of corn merce it was realized that the first big job was to get the people fully informed of the project and what it aimed to do to get out good attendance at meetings an entertainment program offering popular hollywood films was presented once a week for eight consecutive weeks in five main communities commit cities the results ex ceedee expectations as the weekly attendance at the five meetings averaged 1000 1 by the time the eight meetings had been concluded the council had the groundwork well established for the first year years s program this cov ered three types of farming which offered several different ways to in crease farm income to furnish ade quate markets tor for new farm indus try home processing was under taken in poultry and certain fruits and vegetables having a known cus tomer demand in addition to these objectives the council also adopted several planks in the platform of a community comm unit so cial program these included good health including a good d et decre atlon education the church and the home |