THE FARMER'S FORUM
The Farmer's Forum Are Feudal Conditions Creeping Into Farm Life? THE rising tide of revolt on the part of the farm tenants of the great Southwest has come before the Federal Industrial Relations...
...This is particularly' true with respect to the more perishable products...
...Team Work Wipes Oat Foot and Mouth Epidemic THE dreaded "foot and mouth" epidemic which broke out in the Mississippi valley during November and threatened to inflict untold losses upon cattle and hog raisers appears at this writing (December 1) to have been checked...
...He Followed Directions His relatives telephoned to the nearest florists...
...A War Time Suggestion AN interesting wartime suggestion is found in the December American Magazine...
...Agriculture will be the dominant theme at the Dallas hearing and the cotton crisis will be reviewed with its attendant results upon landlord and employing farmer, tenant and farm laborer...
...the final victory...
...military experts...
...One of the big cattlemen of the country is Congressman-elect Thomas J. Steele of Sioux City, Iowa...
...STOCK OWNERS SHOULD PROMPTLY NOTIFY OF INFECTIONS, OR OF SUSPICIOUS BEHAVIOR ON THE PART OF THEIR CATTLE...
...Constructive policies for obtaining equitable leases, and for settling the city surplus labor on farms will be sought The relation of marketing and farm credit plans to the problem will be developed...
...Now the state and federal governments share alike in the expense...
...Think of the whole Army of the Northeast drawn up on the Hackensack meadows'to exterminate the aboriginal jersey mosquito—and doing it...
...analysis of the campaign by...
...Housing and health conditions of the laboring classes on the farms will also be studied...
...Every farmer should welcome the helpful suggestions on the next page by Mr...
...The importance of this increased return can scarcely be over-estimated: To obtain it will • require the united efforts of communities—the standardization of products, and the development of a closer social structure among the smaller producers...
...It's the . husking-bce idea on a big scale...
...He would have two years compulsory service out of every child in the country...
...If so what does it portend...
...When one epidemic in England alone caused a loss of $5,000,000, and one in France at the time of the Franco-Prussian war caused a loss cf $7,500,000, it may be seen that most drastic measures are necessary...
...In other states these laws do not exist, but this may be set down in the notebooks of cattle owners as the truest thing in the world now: Your stock is worth more money to sell to the state the day they are found diseased with the foot and mouth trouble than they ever will be again, sell them to the state and the government as diseased animals...
...The overcrowding of the urban industrial centers with unorganized, unskilled laborers, many of whom speak English imperfectly and are not qualified to seek or bargain for work on terms of preference, has brought before the commission the importance of finding ways to redistribute this labor, In all parts of the country we also hear of the difficulty of securing farm workers at certain seasons and of the desire for additional population for farm production...
...And everywhere the farmers themselves were found lending their co-operation to the authorities in preventing the spread of the disease...
...But this was only one-third of the loss as at that time the states paid two-thirds...
...in two or three days small blisters appear on the lining of the mouth...
...Individual efficiency and skill may solve it only to a limited degree...
...Do your duties as citizens, stock owners, and help quench this conflagration...
...THE rising tide of revolt on the part of the farm tenants of the great Southwest has come before the Federal Industrial Relations Commission, That commission on December 14 will begin public hearings at Dallas, Texas, to aid in its investigation of the labor and capital aspects of the» American land question...
...Is there any trend toward a condition in which the small farmer is eliminated and the farm lands concentrated into huge holdings by a comparatively small group of land barons...
...It will enable you to save yourself great losses if you deal openly and frankly with the government...
...The pens and alleys were then covered with quick lime, after which the work of disinfection with a three per cent, coal tar solution was taken up...
...In all of our western hearings we have come in direct contact with the land question," said Prof...
...Efforts will be made to ascertain the true facts and to get the point of view of each class...
...Foot and mouth" disease is an acute, highly infectious disease which occurs chiefly in cattle, sheep, goats and swine, though other animals such as the horse and dog, as well as certain wild animals, are attacked also and it may affect human beings...
...Soon they will, be worthless, for no state should pay for stock after the owner has concealed the trouble and allowed it to spread from his stock...
...Why, if we should give one example of a real war, as we might in the Miami flood—or against the elm beetle or the browntail or the army worm, we,-would change the temper of the entire world...
...The rough drying of plain material would constitute the bulk of the work for neighborhood laundries, and hence the practice given at the dairy school is of the utmost practical value in furthering the cause of "sunny Mondays" on the farm...
...He wires me as follows from Washington, where he is looking after the interests of the cattle-men of the nation as well as he can: '' THE GOVERNMENT AND ALL GOVERNORS OF STATES HAVE INDICATED A WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR INFECTED STOCK, BUT APPROPRIATION FOR SOME WILL BE NECESSARY...
...tremendous flank movements and sorties—all to save property instead of destroy it,—night operations under arcs and searchlights...
...It is not only an individual business matter...
...In the last outbreak of the disease (1908) the government paid out $296,-000 in this manner...
...The movement -of the floating labor that gathers the cotton cpop and methods of regulating the supply to meet the demand, will come in for consideration...
...The ^ribbon must be extra wide, with 'Rest in Peace' on both sides, and if there is room 'We Shall Meet \in Heaven.' " The florist i was away and his new assistant handled the job...
...Prompt notification will not only mean saving himself from heavy losses in his own herds but will help to prevent the spread of the disease elsewhere...
...Some states already have laws under which the state divides the expense with the live stock owner...
...The agricultural establishment of the United States he would have organized on as great a scale and with the some rigor as the military establishments of Germany and Russia...
...In these states the payment for the cattle will be made promptly and liberally, and in full...
...the strategy...
...He goes on in part as follows: "For instance: Word comes in to Washington over the telegraph that the grasshoppers are devastating Kansas...
...To keep still and do nothing is to take the loss—for the disease is incurable, and the cattle lose value every day...
...reforestation by the entire Army of the Northwest...
...It is a problem that concerns the industrial units of society as well as the agricultural...
...As the cost of equipping such a laundering plant is but about $300 it is not beyond the possibilities for any community...
...If you conceal the trouble, and especially try to get the stock off your hands, you will almost certainly suffer a total loss of them...
...The different branches of the service—farming, animal husbandry, forestry, etc.—would correspond to the military branches of cavalry, infantry, artillery, eic...
...What is developed by the Industrial Relations Commission from this investigation should be given the widest publicity and discussion...
...If any further outbreak appears, Congress will probably be asked for an emergency appropriation to complete the work of stamping out this menace...
...It is a problem of organization and co-operation...
...The immensity of that problem alone may be sensed by the fact that it requires in the neighborhood of $150,000,000 to pick the cotton crop...
...Hunt for foot and mouth disease...
...It Is Coming— "Sunny Monday" EVERY student enrolled in the winter dairy course at the University of Wisconsin is being taught how to operate a community laundry and should the occasion later arise, undoubtedly would be in a position to install and operate a similar plant in connection with a. local creamery...
...careful calculations on the least damage instead of the greatest...
...The main subjects to be treated by the commission at this hearing will be the national tendency toward concentration in ownership of lands, the rapid increase in tenant farming, the movement to raise the rents, the development of class feeling among the white tenants and the inter-racial competition growing up among the Mexican, Negro, European immigrants and the native white tenants in the Southwest...
...The "Get Together" Idea THE NEED of better systems of distribution was emphasized by Thomas Cooper in an address before the International Dry Farming Congress...
...The owners will lose no money if the disease is found...
...Estimates made in the United States indicate that on the average the farmer probably receives 45 to 55 cents from each dollar expended by the consumer...
...John R. Commons of the University of Wisconsin, one of the commissioners, in discussing the agricultural hearing...
...Instantly the whole Army, of the Mississippi is mobilized—railway traffic all suspended for the military schedule worked out in advance by the Government and kept immanent over all the railways,—six hundred special trains rushing in the troops to the strategic points in Kansas, flags flying and horns tooting...
...Team work among farmers is what will do their job of banking and marketing, (both buying and selling): in the future...
...He said: "The development, of better systems of distribution which involve less loss and waste, is of vital importance in the farm business...
...The peril lies in the fact that they will fail to report suspicious cases in their herds for fear of loss—not loss of cattle alone, but loss of money, I want to urge farmers, and all who have any acquaintance with them or with other owners of cattle, whether in stockyards, on farms, or in the barns of the owners of "town cows" to watch carefully for any symptoms of disease, and report at once to the county, city and neighborhood veterinarians and to the state veterinarian...
...Every farmer should rwport a sign of the disease at once...
...I BELIEVE THIS WILL BE ACCOMPLISHED IN ALL CASES...
...The equipment at the dairy school is suited only'foi rough drying...
...In the November election a governor was chosen in Texas (James E. Ferguson) who made restriction in landlords' rents the main feature of his campaign...
...Coming at a time when the whole world is seeking new supplies of meat and of leather, when our own country begins to find itself importing meats in substantial quantities, when every effort of our agricultural authorities is directed toward encouraging greater production of meat in new sections and by new methods, this epidemic called for the most vigorous action...
...Quick...
...Just imagine the enormous military projects to be carried out in every section of the country: immense areas ot dry soil brought under irrigation after an arduous campaign by the Army of the West...
...the battles...
...Here is a case where the most perfect teamwork between the farmers and the government authorities is called for...
...And act as sensible men by selling your stock at their full value to the state as soon as you note the disease...
...And what should be done about it...
...That the epidemic was checked so successfully is due to the prompt and effective co-operation of the state and federal governments...
...This investigation is of exceptional importance...
...Here is a matter of vital significance, not alone to our agricultural population but to every person in the nation...
...The Southwest is the scene of a class struggle among the rural population that is yearly growing more acute...
...A writer makes the point that it would be a good thing for this country, and particularly for the farmers, if we had a large standing army...
...What it brings forth will have a close bearing upon the future settlement of agricultural problems...
...And the sooner it is identified and the stock destroyed the less your loss is likely to be...
...at the same time one or more feet may show symptoms, blisters form and the animal goes lame...
...You will in some states certainly, and in all of them probably, get their full value...
...To try to ship stock after infection is to commit a crime against the nation, the chief food supply of which is endangered—and, besides, the man who ships cattle makes his cattle outlaw stock and cannot expect pay for them when their diseased condition is discovered as it surely will be in these days of rigid inspection...
...books written to prove that General Silas Perkins could have saved one more quarter-section of grain at the Battle of Otchakoochee by extending his lines half a mile to the north, others proving he could not justify the risk to.his main positions —and so on...
...This service would be devoted to agriculture rather than to military matters...
...It is said that the farmer of Denmark and some other European countries receives GO to 65 cents from each dollar expended by the consumer...
...The farmers and ranchers whose cattle are thus killed are reimbursed for their loss, the state bearing half of the expense and the federal government the other half...
...About $1,000,000 have been spent by the federal and state governments in the campaign against this disease...
...In animals it is characterized especially by an eruption in the mouth and on the feet...
...In cattle the disease gains a foothold in from three to five days, whereupon a moderate fever sets in with loss of appetite...
...In washing their own dairy suits and machine shop overalls the students learn the operation of the laundry machinery used in connection with the creamery...
...Diseased animals were shot, covered with quick lime and buried and every spot in the yards and chutes was flushed with chloro-nate of water...
...He is a great cattle owner...
...The cattle will be paid for, at their full beef value, if beef cattle, and at their full value, anyhow...
...Testimony will be taken from representatives of all of the interests concerned...
...developing power at military stations by all our streams, for distribution over all the military areas...
...Usually starting in the hoof, the disease is carried to the mouth because the cow licks the sore...
...He wants an army organized not to kill men but to destroy pests that threaten agricultural prosperity and national well-being...
...Absentee landlordism has developed to significant proportions with many attendant evils of a distinct industrial nature...
...There was a sensation when the flowers turned up at the funeral...
...At the Union stock yards in Chicago 1,000 men were set at the work of disinfection...
...The ribbon was extra wide, indeed, and on it was the inscription : "Rest in peace on both sides, and' if there is room, we shall meet in heaven...
...It is obtainable, but as a factor affecting the business of farming it must be ' solved by groups of individuals...
...it is a social duty...
...The commission will ask for remedial plan3 as well as for statement of conditions...
...reclamation by the Army of the lower, Mississippi...
...This is even more than the amount of relief loans proposed by Secretary McAdoo...
...The Foot and Mouth Danger—Our Duty By HERBERT QUICK THE REAL DANGER to the country from the foot and mouth plague lies in the cattle owners themselves...
...The question then is, can the rural population assimilate part of this surplus, and if so, how...
...Its effect must, be to make a larger return on the farm business...
...But it is a unique kind of standing army that he proposes...
Vol. 6 • December 1914 • No. 46
