The Young Farmer: Some Things He Should Know Part 2

A German came to this country and settled in New Jersey, where he established a large orchard. In course of time his two sons grew into manhood. While, of course, requiring plenty of laborers, the orchardist did not need the sons in the management of his farm. He, therefore, established one of these sons in the commission business in Philadelphia, thus, at least, keeping the profits on the sale of the products of his orchard in the family. He also needed cold storage for his fruit. The other son started a cold storage plant, which plays an important part in the profitable management of the orchard. Thus both sons have independent employment requiring managerial ability and the orchard is much more profitable than it otherwise would be.

Our land laws, our traditions and our practices are based upon the idea that a farm is to provide activity and support for but one family. In order, therefore, that the son may marry and begin to develop his life in his own way, it is essential to reorganize in some manner the method of managing the farm or to enlarge or, perhaps, specialize its activities. This may be accomplished on a simple partnership basis, or it may be in some such line as outlined in the ill.u.s.trations which have been given. In other occupations such co-operative effort is the rule rather than the exception. That it is more difficult to effect satisfactory arrangements in farming must be conceded, else they would be more common. Doubtless it will often tax the ingenuity of father and son to devise the plans best suited to meet their particular problem.

There still remains to consider another form of business relation as applied to farming which has become almost universal in trade and transportation. The following incident may ill.u.s.trate and emphasize the problem better than abstract discussion: One day a man walked into an office and stated that a friend had a half million dollars to invest in farming, provided that he could be convinced that the money would be invested profitably.

"Does your friend desire to buy land in any particular locality?"

"Yes," replied the promoter, "he wishes to buy land near ----. He has some sentiment about it. He was born in that neighborhood."

"Well, that is a rather bad beginning. Farming on sentiment is dangerous, especially when the sentiment is in no way related to the business."

The facts were that the region indicated was recognized to be one of the most unpromising sections of the state.

"If you undertake to invest a half million dollars in one neighborhood,"

continued the adviser, "you will pretty certainly fail to earn interest on your investment."

"Why?" inquired the promoter.

"Before you could possibly buy any considerable part of the land the owners of the farms you desire to buy would have doubled or perhaps trebled the price asked for their holdings. It is one thing to earn interest on an investment of $30 an acre and quite another to earn an equal per cent on $60 or $90 an acre.

"In the second place, farmers are content to accept less per cent on their capital than they would if it was loaned at interest, because the farm furnishes a home as well as a business. When you buy up all these farms and convert them into a single enterprise you will destroy their home value. You cannot hope to compete with the man, who, because his farm furnishes him a home, is content with an otherwise small return on his investment."

There were other reasons, of course, why such an enterprise would fail, which the speaker did not stop to explain.

"You are mistaken," challenged the promoter. "I intend to meet both your objections. My plan is to form a corporation and issue both preferred and common stock. The preferred stock shall bear 5% and that will belong to my friend who furnishes the money. I will retain the common stock. Five per cent is all the owner of the money is ent.i.tled to, while if the business returns more than that amount, it will be due to my management. I, and those a.s.sociated with me, are ent.i.tled to all that is made above five per cent. By retaining the common stock the surplus income will come to us. Neither will I destroy the home value, because I shall a.s.sociate the former owners with me in the conduct of the estate and may give them some of the common stock, so that they will be interested with me in making a profitable return. If they wish to keep their money invested in the farm, they will be given preferred stock in place of cash for their farms."

It is needless to say that the promoter never convinced his friend that he could successfully invest for him a half million dollars along the lines indicated. Nevertheless the corporate plan is not without merit. For example, if a father should incorporate his farm, he could provide for the inheritance of the preferred stock, among the heirs, as he desires. He could give to the son who operates the farm all the common stock, together with what preferred stock he is ent.i.tled or the father may desire him to have. The common stock would provide the means by which the income from the farm, which was due to the sons skill and management, might go to him. As time went on the son could acquire additional preferred stock from the father or other heirs, or he could invest his earnings elsewhere, as might seem most expedient.

On the death of the parents, the preferred stock would be distributed as inheritance or the will provided without in any way interfering with the continuity of the farm enterprise. If at any time the son desired to discontinue the management of the farm, all he would need to do would be to dispose of his interest in the common stock at whatever he might be able to secure from the man who succeeded to its management. He could sell or retain his preferred stock.

Farming is the one remaining great industry that has not been organized so that a single enterprise may have a continuous existence.

A corporation never dies, but at least three generations of men occupy the farms of the United States each century.

CHAPTER IV

OPPORTUNITIES IN AGRICULTURE

Some years ago, a prominent magazine contained an article ent.i.tled "The American Farmer's Balance Sheet," in which a descendant of the second and sixth Presidents of the United States was shown to have made in one year a profit of over $19,000 from a 6,000-acre wheat farm in North Dakota, and over $50,000 from a 6,000-acre corn farm in Iowa.

A few months later there appeared in the same magazine another article, the purport of which was that great wealth, whether it be obtained from farming, the mining of coal, the manufacture of steel or the selling of merchandise, is the exception, while the man, in whatever calling, who rears and educates a family and at the same time lays by a small competence is the normal American product. The moral is that a $500-a-year-income farm is a more important factor to the national welfare than a $50,000-a-year-income farm.

In the latter article the writer tells of two brothers who had been reared on a Michigan farm. Reuben was tired of the country. He went to the city and apprenticed himself to a harnessmaker. Against the advice of young friends, Lucien bought sixty acres of land and ran in debt for it.

In a year Reuben was earning a dollar a day. He wore a white shirt and pointed shoes, not because they were more comfortable, but because other people did. He had no debts. Lucien had fair crops, but they yielded no more than enough to pay interest on the mortgage. He wore a ragged shirt, patched breeches and cowhide boots. People said that Reuben was making a gentleman of himself and learning a trade in the bargain.

In two years, Reuben had completed his apprenticeship. He was now earning $10 a week. He lived in a house that had a fancy veranda and green blinds. His clothing improved. Lucien was still ragged, but he paid his interest and $300 each year upon the princ.i.p.al. People said that Reuben, the harnessmaker, was bound to come to the front.

In ten years more, Reuben was still foreman of the shop at $50 a month. He lived in the same house, and smoked Havana cigars. Lucien built a new house and a barn. He smoked a pipe. The neighbors saw that every year he made some improvement on the farm. He wore a white shirt when he went to town, and he had a pair of b.u.t.ton shoes. People said that Lucien was becoming a prominent man. His word was good at the bank.

Reuben began to complain that harnessmaking was too confining. His health was breaking down. The proprietor was selfish. He would not die and leave the business to him. Harnessmaking was not what it used to be. Lucien bought more land. He went fishing when he wanted to. Reuben came out now and then to spend Sunday. The birds seemed to sing more sweetly than ever before and the gra.s.s was greener. Lucien endorsed Reuben's note.

Lucien has pigs, and cows, and sheep, and chickens, and turkeys, and horses. He raises potatoes and beans, and corn, and wheat, and garden stuff, and fruit. He buys his groceries and clothing and tobacco.

Reuben buys everything. At the close of the year Lucien puts from $100 to $300 in the bank or takes a trip to Washington. Reuben does well if he come out even. Lucien does not fret; Reuben grumbles.

The picture is true to life. It has been enacted and re-enacted in every one of the older communities of the United States.

It has always seemed to the writer, however, that the author of this suggestive story left out two important personages. They were Sarah, the wife of Reuben, and Mary, the wife of Lucien. Sarah liked to make tatting and to go to pink teas. Mary preferred to raise flowers and fluffy little chickens. Nothing is to be said for or against the taste of either. Each has a right to her preference, but their point of view cannot be left out of the problem when a young man is considering his future occupation.

It has been said, and probably with considerable truth, that most congressmen would not hang around Washington if it were not for their wives.

No one must mistake this story as an attempt to compare harness making with farming, much less to compare living in the city with life in the open country.

What it does is to compare the struggle and the development of the man who goes into business for himself with the man who accepts employment at wages.

Because of less responsibility and less sacrifices at the beginning, the tendency is for young men to work for wages rather than to engage in business for themselves. This is becoming more and more true as industrial methods make it more and more difficult for the young man to command the requisite capital.

The man who works for wages usually has the larger income and appears the most prosperous during the earlier years as compared with his brother who enters business. The business man, however, who, while young, economizes and invests his savings in his business gradually outstrips his wage-earning brother. During later life he is able to enjoy the fruits of his earlier economy and investments, while failing powers and keen compet.i.tion of younger and better trained men restrict the opportunities of the wage earner, who has generally spent his wages in better living, or at least in more outward show.

This is well shown by the fact that it is customary to make provision by means of pensions for wage earners of all sorts, while no such arrangement is made for men who engage in business, be that farming, trade or transportation.

For many reasons, however, young men will continue to seek employment at wages, even if only for a few years, or until some capital has been acquired which may be invested in business.

The question arises, therefore, what opportunities there may be for the young man who desires to engage, eventually, in the business of farming to work for wages along lines that will not be too far removed from the business in which he is subsequently to engage. It will be a.s.sumed that the young man has prepared himself in that same painstaking way that he would if he were preparing to become an engineer, a lawyer or a physician.

There is a constant demand for men with proper training as managers of farms. As stated elsewhere, the wages are seldom less than $40 nor more than $75 a month to beginners, although for men of experience $5,000 a year has been paid in exceptional cases for the management of large enterprises. These positions often const.i.tute ideal opportunities for capable young men. They require, however, not only an intimate knowledge of farming, but the ability, also, to manage men.

The ability to manage men requires the combination of decision and tact, not possessed by all, and not easily acquired by education or practice. Not only must the farm manager be able to manage workmen, but oftentimes he must manage his employer, who may have little knowledge of farming but still insists upon having his own ideas executed, as he, of course, has a perfect right to do.

Another danger is the fact that where the farm is owned by a man engaged in other business, many circ.u.mstances may arise to cause the owner to change his plans or sell his property. There is often, therefore, a lack of permanency in these positions.

The United States Department of Agriculture employs upward of 5,000 people. There is a constant demand for young men to recruit this service, including experts in soils, plant production, animal husbandry, dairying, chemistry and forestry. Beginners receive from $800 to $1,000 a year. When they are sent out of Washington into field service, as many of them are, they receive their expenses, including subsistence in addition. Young men may rise rather rapidly by promotion to $1,600 a year, then more slowly to $2,000, while an occasional man is promoted to the more responsible position paying $3,000 to $4,000 a year.

The positions are all filled through the compet.i.tive civil service examinations. Examinations are held at more or less irregular intervals, usually several times a year, in various sections of the country. A letter addressed to the United States Civil Service Commission will secure the necessary information concerning openings and the general requirements for the examinations.

Employment in the United States Department of Agriculture often affords opportunity for varied experience and wide observation of farming methods throughout the country. Such employment is generally to be considered desirable if not continued for too long a period. As a matter of fact, men are constantly leaving the service to engage in practical or other work, a fact which makes the demand for young men greater than would otherwise be the case.

The various agricultural colleges and experiment stations are constantly seeking men. It would seem that the demand would eventually be satisfied. As a matter of fact, however, it grows greater year by year, both because these inst.i.tutions continue to grow and because young men are attracted more and more to practical work. It is stated that in one inst.i.tution there were 46 graduates in the course in animal husbandry and that 44 went into practical work and only two sought employment in college or station. The salaries are about the same as in government positions.

Agricultural newspaper work offers an attractive field for young men who are properly trained and have a taste for this kind of work.

There is also beginning to be quite a demand for teachers of agriculture in the high schools. As a rule a man is wanted who can teach, in addition, the sciences usually taught in secondary school.

The customary salary is from $70 to $100 a month on an eight to ten months' basis. An experience of one or two years as a teacher in a high school, or even the lower grades of the public school, should be invaluable to the young man who expects subsequently to engage in farming. This is particularly true if he has not had the opportunity of a college training.

It is, perhaps, unnecessary to state that the salaries mentioned in this chapter are obtained only by young men who possess certain qualifications. To secure them, they must be men of ability, integrity, virtue and industry. No man who is not willing to make the preparation necessary to master his subject can expect to succeed. He must, also, be a man of absolute honesty, and he must lead a clean life. It was Bismarck who said, of German university students, "One-third die out; one-third rot out; the other third rule Germany."

Every man who will may choose whether he will belong to Bismarck's second or third cla.s.s.

The question for the young man of 20 is not merely as to the morrow, but what is likely to be the trend of events during the next 35 to 50 years.