| Show illinois 1 I have been asked to give the readers of this family journal something about farm conditions in illinois as compared to those of this section of utah my visit being cut short and time of necessity limited in meeting up with farmers of today we accomplished little to base an opinion on such an important subject we did find financial problems the same as those of utah instead of giving our readers our version of conditions there we shall endeavor to give you illinois farmers own words of their farm conditions gathered from acquaintances and strangers free and unbiased their poU political views unknown to me if our readers find bibis of any particular interest we shall endeavor to give them further articles on the subject S D perry A bible student called my attention t on to joseph who in bible times stored wheat in the fat years to supply the demand in the lean years now when that procedure is followed the large carryovers carry overs de pres pre s the market so a farmer in the drouth region does not get the price lie he reasonably expects on his reduced production the rapid mechanization aniza tion of the farmers of today has brought problems like those of the manufacturer the illinois farms of this section are mechanized there Is in particular one farm here where a single hand with a tractor and row cultivator takes care of acres of corn exceptional yes but the farmers with new equipment can easily tend a hundred acres of corn help with the haying and get the fall grain plowing done its easy eacy A job that used to take weeks now by ope operating operatic ratin day and night completes it in days not weeks the combine does the reaping and threshing in one operation remember in the old days there used to be a crowd of harvest hands remember how mother used to dread those long tedious harvest days of cook eat and wash dishes then followed the threshing machines and crews it would take them months different now ill say sol so the old fashioned husking bee a thing of the past its corn husking machinery now and when the corn in hauled to the crib its unloaded and delivered in the bin all by machinery with the aid of the modern modem machinery there Is better plowing better planting and bet better ter harvesting the other side of it Is equally interesting few of our land owners conduct their own farms renters are the hard workers now they have more money involved to do labor for the land owner than some merchants have invested in their town stores when old man drouth comes storms sickness disasters and innumerable other be segments set ments they just fade away and mourn their wisdom such Is life it Is tet best answered by that old but true saying 0 little boats should keep near s shore hore big boats can venture more this mechanization involves thousands of dollars yes it makes for cheap cost of production unfortunately these costs axe are not sufficiently cheaper to put very many renters on a profitable basis their beginning and ending is much the same they seldom ever get to own a farm of their own heres some statistics by see sec wallace that are especially interesting to us farmers the efficiency of farmers increased by five times in the first years of U S history it has doubled in the last fifty in 1787 it required 19 people on the land to support just one pers con in town now 19 farmers support 56 in town and five or ten in foreign countries more food tor for government relief according to another farmer worked just the opposite for him I 1 went to bushnell to hire help to put up winter feed tor for my stock I 1 found beveral men basking in the sunshine and exchanging funny stories they all refused the weeks work because they were to get their checks during the same period my neighbor who lost his tenant farmer looking for a man of family to take his place found one who showed allowed some interest made him an offer of 25 per month a comfortable farm home with a good garden spot to grow the big end of the food tor for his family and all the fruit needed from the orchard after a little the man replied he had a VV PA jot job which paid him 35 a month but my neighbor protested you wont have a place to live a garden spot and all the fruit you want to can dont you see ree my offer is ba better 1 I dont think so was the reply on the job I 1 have to work only halt the time so mr perry because of the difficulty in finding hands they are going in beyond their means for labor saving machinery adding taxes and expense they ran can ill afford because of the scarcity of men who will actually work NOTE the average price decline in illinois in 1938 was quoted to us as being about 20 per cent in contrast to a decline of about 8 per cent for livestock |
