/ F “Library, Southwest Begioq, Soil Conservation Service, Albuquerque, New Mexico,* XTENSION SERVICE REVIEW Vol. 9 JULY 1938 No. 7 . TODAY TOMORROW Page THE FAMILY—BASIS OF RURAL PROSPERITY ... 97 BUSINESSMEN AND URBAN CON- Dr. O. E. Baker, population expert and rural philosopher, draws SUMERS must have a sympathetic un- some pertinent conclusions from his years of study. derstanding of agricultural problems if an agricultural program is to be success- IS THERE A WAY OUT? 98 ful. Through the cooperation of A. A. A. C. C. Randall, assistant director, Arkansas, strikes at the heart committeemen and extension workers in of the landlord-tenant problem in an arresting analysis of the 53 counties in Wisconsin, an opportun- situation. ity was given to more than 8,000 citi- zens of town and country to meet EXTENSION TRAINS LEADERS 99 together and discuss their mutual director of extension work, digs facts C. W. Warburton, up some problems. An account of this important extension in the on the number of former workers now newer undertaking will be carried in the next action agencies. / number. LAND-USE COORDINATION / 100 BETTER PRODUCTION METHODS coordinator of land-use planning for theV M. S. Eisenhower, still pay dividends, as Missouri will tells has been Department of Agriculture, what done and what show in an article describing a cotton- is planned for the future. production and marketing improvement A MAN WHO LOOKED AHEAD 101 campaign in the six cotton counties, which added a million dollars to the Sudden death came on May 31 to Herbert W. Mumford, who as income of the growers. dean and director exerted for many years a profound constructive influence upon agricultural research and education in Illinois. TIMBER FARMING recently received some first-hand study by county agents HOME DEMONSTRATION COTTAGES IN HAWAII - - 102 of southeastern Mississippi, and an ac- Women and girls in Hawaii are enthusiastic about their home count of their forestry tour will be fea- demonstration cottages where they can work and try out their tured in a forthcoming issue. homemaking experiments. LEADERSHIP in Kentucky home dem- NEW HAMPSHIRE EXTENSION SERVICE EXPANDS - 103 onstration clubs will be discussed by The New Hampshire Extension Service reorganizes for a more Mrs. H. L. Crafton, a Kentucky home- comprehensive job. maker, just as she did at her district COOPERATIVE ROADSIDE MARKETS 104 meeting when the clubs came together The orchard-improvement program in Milwaukee County, Wis., for a panel discussion on extending the carried on by County Agent R. B. Pallett since 1935 shows home demonstration program. results. COORDINATING social forces to at- COUNTY PLANNING IN CALIFORNIA 106 tain a constructive rural recreation pro- B. H. Crocheron, director of extension in California, describes gram in Illinois will be discussed by D. E the county economic planning conferences and how they have Lindstrom, rural sociologist, Illinois helped to mobilize farmers’ efforts. Extension Service. UTAH INVENTORIES ITS FARM AND HOME PROB- A SUMMARY of extension work in LEMS 107 advancing the use of freezer lockers is William Peterson, director of extension in Utah, explains the ready for publication. county planning program functioning efficiently there. SOUTH DAKOTA FARMERS HAVE THEIR SAY - - - 108 South Dakota farmers met in 1,028 discussion meetings last year On the Calendar to talk over their problems and to discuss agricultural economic policy. American Veterinary Medical Association, New York, N. Y., July 5-9. American Association of Agricultural College Editors, Norris, Tenn., July 11-15. American Poultry Science Association, Pullman, Wash., Aug. 15-18. EXTENSION SERVICE REVIEW Published by direction of the Secretary of World Youth Congress, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., Agriculture as administrative information required for the proper transaction of the public Aug. 15-24. business. The Review is issued free by law to workers engaged in extension activities. Regional Western States Extension Conference, Others obtain copies from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Berkeley, Calif., Aug. 17-19. Washington, D. C., at 10 cents each, or by subscription at 75 cents a year, domestic, Eastern States Exposition, Springfield, Mass., and $1.15, foreign. Postage stamps not acceptable in payment. Sept. 18-24. EXTENSION SERVICE Dairy Cattle Congress, Waterloo, Iowa, Sept. 26-Oct. 2. C. W. Warburton, Director Triennial Meeting, Association of Country Women Reuben Brigham, Assistant Director C. B. Smith, Assistant Director of the World, London, England, June 5-12, 1939. Published, monthly by the U. S. Department of Agriculture in the interest of cooperative extension work L.A.Schlup.. Editor The Family—Basis of Rural Prosperity WO very important factors accounting for the O. E. BAKER Tlarge amount of poverty among rural people Division of Farm Population and Rural Life are the migration of rural youth and the transfer of Bureau of Agricultural Economics rural activities to the cities. If higher prices of farm products were obtainable, they alone would • • • not be sufficient to prevent the gradual loss of land forth tenfold. The farmer deals with life. The ownership by farm operators. Indeed, if the urban philosophy of life, on the other hand, as often prosperity that resulted from higher prices en- observed, has become mechanistic. It is based on couraged farmers to retire to town, it would ac- the inventions associated with the steam engine and celerate the increase of tenancy; and if it led farmers has become dominant only in the last century and a to borrow money to buy more land, as it has in the half. The typical rural philosophy of life is based past, it would increase the mortgage debt with sub- upon the experience of the race down through the sequent loss of land ownership in many cases. ages. The need is to develop an economic system Commercial agriculture, in association with com- and associated social ideals that will harmonize mercial ideals of success, evidently produces a drift the rural philospohy of life with the achievements of rural wealth toward the cities. of science and invention. • • • • • • ROSPERITY alone cannot preserve our demo- NLESS the farmers and farm women of the Pcratic American agriculture. It would tend to U Nation think more about the things that are increase the size of farms, particularly on the better fundamental and how they can encourage their land, to promote the further commercialization of children to love the farm and the farming people agriculture, and to accelerate migration to the and turn thier faces toward the home community cities, both of rural youth and rural activities. In instead of the distant city, they will continue in all my opinion, it must be supplemented with the pre- likelihood to lose the ownership of the land. servation of the rural home and family, the main- tenance of rural institutions, particularly the church • • • and a truly rural school, and the development of home and village industry. A continuity of family NDEED, they may lose more than this. They proprietorship in farming is essential. Now con- I may lose the activities of the family in the protec- tinuity of family proprietorship is dependent upon tion and education of children and youth and the ideals. Among these ideals is that of the home and provision of security in illness and old age. They the family farm and the preservation of the family may lose even the democratic organization of the line from generation to generation. This is the State. As the responsibility of the family decreases ideal for which our parents and grandparents lived the responsibility of the Government increases; and labored. and unless the people feel themselves to be a part of the Government and direct its policy, the spirit • • • of democracy declines. The millions of unem- HE rural philosophy of life must be preserved. ployed in the cities and the millions more who are TThe typical rural philosophy of life fundament- apprehensive of unemployment are a danger to ally is organic; the farmer lives and works with democratic government. It is becoming clear that plants and animals. Agriculture is based upon the the land is the foundation of the family and that the reproductive process. Seed is sown and brings family is the foundation of the democratic State. Extension Service Review for July 1938 97 71157—38 Is There a Way Out . Of the Landlord -Tenant Problem in Arkansas C. C. RANDALL ARKANSAS, and, in fact, the whole South, has three times too AA many people for its land to support with a decent standard of Assistant Director living. We are laboring over mere details when we attempt to Arkansas Extension Service adjust landlord-tenant contracts, lengthen tenure of the tenant, or • • • even to achieve farm ownership in the belief that we are striking at the heart of the problem of poverty among our farm people. Actually, the real and fundamental problem facing landowners and tenants alike living for a farm population that is 2 million greater than the total farm popula- is that we are trying to make 1 acre do the work of 3. tion in the other 36 States. The per capita farm income in the South is $160—in the other States $390. (1935 We are dividing our loaf of bread making grass, livestock, and timber work census and U. S. Bureau of Agricultural among three times too many people, and for them, the problem of low standards Economics.) then wondering why no one gets a full of living will still be with us. The Even if the landowner were to give the meal. During recent years, a great deal present system of row-crop farming, with tenant all the income from the crop, free has been said about fair division of crops intensive labor on a few acres, will not of rent, the tenant would still not have and profits from the land.