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The Seaforth News, 1933-10-26, Page 3THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1933 THE SEAFORTH NEWS. • We Tire Selling Quality Books Books"are Well Made, Carbon is Clean and Copies Readily. styles, Carbon Leaf and Black Back. Prices as Low as You Can Anywhere. Get our Quotation on Your Next Order. • The Seatorth SEAFORTH, ONTARIO, All Get News WILL BIG SCALE FARM- producing grain exclusively, ING LAST tBetween these -two enterprises, the family -operated farm and 'the corpora- tA 'hundred yards back from the tion handling a 'large aggregation of Alkaload stands a house. IIt is substantial land, there .is inevitable conflict. The but not elaborate. Architectural •in- schools of thought 'which sponsor fluences of country club additions them are as far apart as 'East.'is :from have passed it by. iBut there is a de- West. One or •the other must meet finite atmosphere o 'f 'wholesomeness defeat. Compromise ' that will permit and security and -permanency about it. the two systems to develop side by (Scattered trees, •beds of flowers and side is unlikely. There is no +b'as'is on grass remove harshness from its sur- which it could Ibeeffected. ,The .'sys- roundings: !Beyond' is a garden. To the tents are essentially •antagonistic. rear stands a 'barn, a poultry house, As I see it, after a' lifetime spent in a granary, a garage, and stacks of close co ant with fariners and in con- hay. 'Nearby is a feed lot. ,A plow, a start :study of their problems, both tractor, a wagon, a truck, cultivators, economic and social, ;there is but :one 'harrow sections, a mowing machine,a possible outcome of this conflict—the disk, an automobile, and other mach- survival and the dominance in the Un- inery may be seen. A rotund silo itcd States of the one -family farm, rears up stolidly in .challenge to a whether it be SO or 640 acres, or even graceful witidmill. a larger area 'as'sontetimeshappens. In an adjoining fenced meadow are iA'lready there is evidence 'that such .-ea-brood sows and their s'que ling off- will be the result. Depression struck spring, (Grazing on the sloping grass a paralyzing blow at corporation, land in the distance are a dozen cows. farming enterprises. Many of t'heni The heads of two horses are enquir- were in 'the promotionstage when it ingly thrust through a sturdy -looking came. The .flaw of capital into what fence, ;Scurrying around, .cackling or everybody recognized as a speculative crowing or industriously scratching,undertaking, was clammed up. iLow are scores of chickens. priced matte 'dividends impossible There's 'the glint of., .gold in -a 'frown -earnings, 'I0 many cases receiv- smocth field 'of waving wheat: that the ership's .resulted. Certainly, at this sun is rapidly warming' into rn''aturity. moment,' the corporation farming 'Beside it are upthrust the dark green nio`vement is sluggish, if it has not stalks ,of corn plants. In ;the air .is the been entirely stopped..I doubt if . it perfume of 'legumes. ever regains the smOmentum it 'op - This is the Jones'fat-tn. Mr. 'Jones peare'd.to:have a few years ago. operates :it. His son -helps: There are This :defeat, attributable to .the .ac - I1160 acres. Mother and ` 'clauglhter do. the .house work and ,look after the poultry.:Cupibo'ards in the cellar bulge with canned 'foods and 'fruits. It is a typical farm (home 'and the Jones are typical 'farmers, A hundred yards back 'from the road. stands ano.th•er'hous'e. It, too, is Main;: 'bui'lt 'for utility; ,Behind it ...are- big sheds 'and in :thein tractors, combines, heavy disk 'plow's, trucks, harrows, and 'dribs.. ;No hen cackles. No co'ck,chall'enges, The grunts' 'and squeals of hogs are not heard. 'There is no :bast from which horses may look :.out 'with curi- osity. 'Missing, too, are cows and green grass on 'Which they could graze. The scent of sweet clover' is absent. 'There is no garden, no cellar Billed with canned foods and 'fruit. 'Everywhere 'about are fields o'f wheat—a'greenish. yelloaw expanse, un- dis'turbed by 'fences or 'houses—ju's't wheat, itoithing else. This is the head- quarters of the Grain !harming Cor- poration. 'In the 'hoose is an office, (Hung on one wall is a large map. (Squares an the map, representing 'sec- tions of land awned by' the company, have been outlined •with a'blue ;p.en•cii, 'There are dozens of therm 'Whii•le 'no't all in one 'block, they are tuot widely scattered. Most of thein are not lan- ced and 'are `w•iithotut 'buildings. an other 'counties :are similar blocks of !anid growing 'wheat, . IA man lives here. (He lodks after potatoes, alfalfa, market corn, seed ally recruited labor. The corporation farm is stuck with wheat.'It can reduce acreage. It Can summer till some of its land. 8t can, perhaps, produce one of the sorghums that can be planted and harvested with wheat machinery. !But it .cannot go into legume pro- duction. It cannot stock its acres with beef or dairy ' cattle; hogs or ,sheep. titcannot put' a flock of chiok- ens or turkeys on every quarter - section. It cannot plant and tend a corn, and "surplus truck and vege- tables. The farm consists of 1105 acre's. A crop of 'fall pigs meets interest and principal payments, on the anent - gage on. the Fremont Albers Farm, (Rice 'County,.Minnesota. ,Spring 'far- rowed pigs buy new fences, buildings, and equiipaneut, ;Poultry supplies money to buy fo'o:d. IA steady income for other expenses comes 'from', dairy cows. To support these income p.ro cident or 'misfortune of 'hard times, which will not persist, is one from which recovery' might ,be po'ssib'le, a'nd does not of itsela .justify the assump- tion that: co'rporaitior >farming has passed finally out of the 'picture. The reasons 'why it will .not beeome well established as a practice in the United States a •each much ':deeper 'than` temporary 'economic difficulties, vicious as they may be. the land is unoccupied and the labor The great strength of the in'divid-'.is dispersed to be .recruited' when natty operated 'farm is in its competi- tive adaptability, (The ,'weakness of the conporatio'n 'fanning ` enterprise 'lies in its inability s'wi'ftly to change or ',materially to ..modify its production p'nogram. • Take the case of 'Bert Tnostle, Reno County, Kansas. For five :years, be- ginning in 1191112, he Ibtrilit up the ;fer- tility golf his land, by growing legumes. Wheat .productivity ,increnased from an average of 5: to .0 bushels :anacre to an average of 20 to 66 'bushels, In '119118 he 'became a wheat 'faniner, grow- ing that cereal almost 'exclusively. 'Thanks to high prices' lie made motley. But 'by f1l91219 .fertility' had 'seriously declined. Ldwer prices 'had ,pared profits. 'Tro'stle'had to meet new con- ditions, He •cin his, 'wheat acreage about one-half, He .boug'ht a 'beef herd, Instead of wheat he began growing 'sorg'hu'ins, corn, native grass, alfalfa, and sweet :clover. The '1ldicNi'akle 'brothers, Stafford County, Kansas, were wheat farmers. When changes, to meet :new condi- juts is ,a will-diversiahed crop -ping garden .on each :farm and store the program. . produce of that 'garden canned or Thus 'do owners of individual 'fawns dried,, in'' a cellar. lIt cannot build a home and barns and hog and 'poultry houses here and there:over its land It isn't' adaptable. It must stick to wheat, :It 'hasn't a ghost of a chance to compete 'with the individ- ually operated farms When,conditions are adverse, and no ,more bhan an even chance 'when conditions are 'fav- orable. The farmer, renter or owner, can have a dozen sources of income, all the time or at any time he may desire. The corporation farm usually has but one 'source of income. ]Failures ofcorporation farms dar- ing the last two years, and they have 'been numerous, were caused by the. failure of the one source of income adapt their •farming program tq changing conditions with expedition and without difficulty: Th.e farmer can ?each a tddcis'ion. IIs can carry it ouIt, immediately. -Ie is in absolute control and every phase 'of the farm: business is subject to his close scru- tiny. II -Ie knows •what is going- on. He does not have to' consult stockholders or a 'board o'f directors. tWhile the tenant operator oaf a farm cannot 'act so expeditiously, and per- haps .obtain' permission to^stake every change he 'feols is desirable, still, in a na ejority of cases tI 'believe, he can sell the landowner on a new 'program, if and . wheal conditions warrant. The PAGE THREE income. So long as they are function- ing as designed, so long as conditions are •favorable, they succeed fairly well. But -when the necessity of sud- denly adapting themselves to changed c urians :arrives, they have repeated- ly proved themselves to be very in- flexible and many of thein have gone to pieces. This has been true even of the corporation farming set-up in which tenants operated individual farms under supervision of a central authority. 'On'e .aspect of this question, which has nothing to do with the' conflict between the individual farm and the corporation farm, or.the ability of one or the other to survive, •nevertheless is ai general concern. The. United (States has been built on a foundation consisting of two parts, One is the greal industrial and manta factoring d'evelopntent. The other is an independent, vigorous, virile agri- culture, matte up of individual fam- ilies. The farming industry is funda- mentally conservative 'because it is in- dividualistic.'It is anti-communistic,anti-socialistic. It is essentially demo- cratic and ;I hold it to be the greatest' bulwark of the democratic farm of government that the United States possesses. Therefore, it is to the advantage of every citizen of the United States, and particularly to business men, that the agricultural industry be preserved in the form flu w'hic'h' it so far hasdeveloped. This country needs thirty milion'fo'lks living on farms big and little conducting their own businesses as individuals,building up the com- munities in which :they live, buying the merc'ha'ndise that pours out of the factories and through th,e retail stores. We want these farmers to have o.p- portunity to rise above a fixed 'level of in•came and to better their stand- ards of living as they •have ability, IShou'1d the idea of corporation 'farthing prevail we would lose what we now' 'have. We would get instead, an industrialized agriculture, with farmers, no longer independent indi- viduals, but' hired wage earners, lev- elled out as regards their incomes:and their standards of living. Rural dis- tricts would lose their 'well 'dis'tributed populations •locatect on farms, and towns and cities would be further crowded and ten.emented, There would be smaller deposits in ruralbanks, •less business for. small-town merchants, less personal and real pro- perty to yield taxes for the support .of governmeut and schools, a diver- sion of income produced locally 'to stockholders widely scattered. - 'Antenica does not want.' that type of agriculture. It cannot maintain itself with a peasant ,class'as an essential part of the foundation on which it stands, tendency toward the 'owner -tenant on which they .depended. partnership idea constantly is growing That cannot .happen an. a farm stronger, and this further strengthens where there are numerous sources of the position •of s'm'all.�farm's, income, including `livestock and 9001 - Now consider, in contrast to the in- try. Income may shrink there, but it dividually operated, farm, the large will n.ot entirely, dry up. The in•divid- corporation wheat .farm, consisting Of ual'farmer, denied .:any income at all thousands of acres. .It has been organ- —which would not occur except as ized (for 'the one purpose of growing the result of flood or .drought or dis wheat, Tt is 'completely mechanized aster of some sort—still can live off bdaatrs.e operation on this scale is gets- anis land and the labor he puts in on sibile only with' large units sof power it, 'The corporation must have income machineryi Labor employed is not 0.11 all activity ceases. Hired labor is resident on tine land "ani' 'lt'as no in -'trot a -elf -sustaining like the individual terest in it other than obtaining funnier and his family. Iit'tnust have wages. Pon months during the year,, wages. The .farmer can get along without 'cash wages.. Much has 'been said about the ad - needed. vantage the corporation farmpos- IC�on'd'iltions 'which make _ possible sesses because sof the efficiency gained profitable production ,of wheat .oui a large scale suddenly change. 1Penh'aps 'fenti-lity seriously declines, or 'drought conies, 'or prices drop and .prints no tonger can be made.. 'The connotation banm is designed only to produce wheat. Its equipment, in large pais good 'for 'th'at purpose alone. 'Its management is a 'wheat management. There is acro 'tillage-ma- chin'ery for row crops. The land, mostly, is 'unfenced. Usually there are no 'facilities, stroll as: 'buildings, and water, whi'c'h conic! be utilized in th-e production •of livesitocic. Tenants ,can- not be placed on the farms because there are no 'homes »11 which they might live. Thus it is virtually 1111- posistble to set'up -a program of diver- sified' pr.oducti'on. • 'Capital requirement•s'for 'a'reorgan- izabion 'of the production sc'he'dules on a. corporation grain farm would be prohibitive. `'Thous'an'ds of acres 'can- ;tlne budin'gs tin masibiner' nu. 1' not 'be devoted to' row, crops' ,and' hays ample, is a big' sheep growing farm, i4 3 1 'LEE -ENFIELD 'RIFLE WAS IN ONTARIO fail himi that eventually he would be able to- produce a firearm equipped. with a magazine repeater system. In' the coutse;af lois association with the Dion firm, ':Janes Lee .spent con- siderable time at Hartford, Conn., and periodically would stake extensive visits to his brother, John Lee, who was conducting a watch .repair busi- seas- in. the town pa the :Sydenhant ri- ver, to which -he came from Owen Sound, To John Lee, who was two years younger than James, fell the honor of navigating the 'first steam boat on the LSydenham river, shortly: after Confed- eration, It was but a short pet:iod after John Lee had been in the watchmak- ing business that the call came to hint fo return to his mare favorer! vocation that of sh'ipbuilding, and a little while later saw him open a foundry and ma- chine shop which later were destined to play such an important part in his brother's invention, for :it was during one of the visits by Jimes Lee that the last named was able to make ra- pid strides towards the perfection of his invention. But one vital thing was missing and this overcome the inven- tion would be perfected. The maga- zine had been 'made, the cartridges could be inserted, but the opening and closing of the bolt of the rifle would not throw them into the breach nor discard the empty shells, The whole thing seemed eo simple to the young brothers, who were nev- ertheless.temporarily stumped as to just what was wanted, until John de- cided, to experiment with a small spring which he manufactured in his machine. shop. This was inserted into the : magazine and the cartridges on top, the holt was closed and reopened and the cartridge 'slipped back out of the breach,and fell to the ground. Re - closing of the bolt inserted cartridge No.'2 into the breach, and so on. The invention was complete; and - the first bullet to be fired from a magazine re- peater rifle "whistled from north to south .across the calm, 'blue water- of the Sydenham river, from the rear of the John Lee 'home on the river bank. James Lee, with the material aid of his brother, John, had turned out the (first Lee box magazine rifle, and little did the small crowd who witnessed the initial experiment ever dream that hundreds of thousands of such rifles would crack across India, South Af- rica and Europe in the wars which were to come• but which at the time u were nthought of. The years 11670 and 11631? saw patents granted, but all attempts to interest military authorities of various coup - tries, including Canada,. the land of the birth of the invention, seemed to be fruitless. To tis land of his choos- ing James Lee gave every opportun- ity of first rights of sale, but the Can- adian military authorities were adam- ant and scoffed at the invention. After four years, with his patience taxed to exhaustion, JamesLee decided to try his iticle-in foreign territory and after traveling the length and breadth of Europe, demonstrating his achievtnent finally in 1666 while in, Austria,' he was •finally able to win the interest of the military officials in that country and satisfy then that' his invention was no mean one, but one .of the most vital importance, in the event of warfare. .The result was that in a compara- tively short time, Austria adopted the 'Mannticher rifle, equipped with the ;Lee magazine. In the same year England became in!teretsed and finally resulted in a trial of the 'Metford rifle, to which- had been attached a Lee box magazine. The experiment proved successful, with the.result that the Lee-Metford rifle 'first came into being and was,of- ificially adopted by the ,British War!Office two years later. 'While at the time of the 'Lee invention the experi- mental magazine 'had been 90 con- structed as to contain five cartridges; tater it; -Size. as iucreaae'l to hold. eight. The innovation of the Lee.Endiield rifle, whIch became alinast a house- hold word amongst soldiers in the re- gular and territorial forces in Great Britain, also to the cadet corps, came shortly after, after, with the making of a few improvements to the bore and bolt of the LeeaMetford, The 'latter class of rifle, however, continues in t'se, and is made in two types, as also are the Lee-Etidfield rifles. d years went' on, increasing inter- est was shown in this remarkable in- vention, which had originated in the little former Scotch settlement on the banks of the Sydenha'ni, where in 1'80a the Ear.' of Selkirk, with .his followers, after being driven out of their 'home- land by the cruelty of the large land- owners in the Scottish Highlands, came to Canada and settled on the Bald'aon farm, 'Other nations began to afford themselves 'of the advantages of the invention, with the result that, in addition to the rifles enumerated with the Lee magazine, the 'latter have -been equipped on the Mauler, Krag- J.ongensen,' '2-[anndiehei - !rataner, ,• Man nlicher Cat-cano. Mauser - Ver- guiero, 'Schmidt - Rubin and .Short Springfield rifles. One :wonders how many of the hun- dreds .of thousands of soldiers who passed through the South African and Great 1Wars ever' thought to question as to the place and time of the inven- tion of the world-famous rifles they were called upon to use? says a writer`- in the !London 'Free Tress. iHow many Canadians even are 'there who are ac- �quaintedwith this fact and the know- ledge that these renowned weapons of warfare, -which 'became known as the Lee -Enfield, the Lee-?[etford, the Lee Hartford and Lee -!Burton rifles, were:fir:first invented, in the busy little town of Wallaceburg; on the banks of the (Sydenham River,' in the heart of Rent county 'The recent pas-sing'of 'a nephew and namesake of the inventor of the Modern military rifle, James P. Lee brings back interesting recollections of the consummation of several years of patient toil and energy and the ul- timate success of the enterprise. To this day there reposes in the W'altacebu:rg home of Frank - Lee, nephew of the inventor, the original rifle, which is regarded as a 'treasured heirloom, and from which '556' years ago the ,first bullet that was fired from a box magazine type armwhizzed it.c alight across the river water adjacent to the 'Lee home. 'In keeping with .the 'usual trend of ventures, the success •oE the young in- ventor vas not gained without. :usual difficulties, but'james 2'. Lee, tui.toned from youth into 'the many complicit- ies of mechanisms, stuck resolutely to'his 'determination:s to succeed. One of a fam'i'ly of mine, the inven- tor was the son of 'George Lee, a watchmaker, who emigrated to Can- ada about a century ago, coming ;from Hawick, in (Scotland. James 'Lee inca- born in I1181311, and from his boyhood days he began to interest himself in experiments with guns. 'When a young man he went to Mil- waukee, where he organized .the Leh 'Firearms Company, which produced what became known as the "'Lee Car- bine;" This weapon'was used exten- sively by the Northern Army'' 'Cavalry ht the'` Civil' War. His next stove wa= to 'Ilion, N.Y.; where he was given ,I supervisory Position in the production d'ePartment of military and spartinr ri'tle:s at' the Remington Bros. plant and it was here that he started his ex- periments towards the invention of - box magazine riffle., Never dict his faith by the use of modern power machin- ery. But today every 'farm, from 60 acres up, can'be as well equipped and can utilize power ntac'hinery just as efficiently. The progress made in 'fit- t'ing power machinery to small farms in recent years has been amazing It has'reduced unit costs of-prod-uc- 'tio:n .on average .farms enormously. Hired management, even though ex- pert, -cannot entirely offset the gains 'that are certain to accrue from the operatiot' of a faint by.a man who is personally :interested in ,:snaking a success of it, even.though, h•e may not hbea'n expert. There enters the human .equation, and it' is a vital .one. The fact is that the corporation farm does no better job than the good, average farater in crop production. and at no lower cost. Of course"tfiere are other types of corporation farms than those produc- ing wheat, In the Dakotas, 'for ex re '. are loons, became' imperative, ,they fenced and gardens without egaiipuient and 'There, too, are corporation °Wired t• 'aup,'s of 'mean and'machinery P P 'the'seedbed .in: 'the 'smmMcr, return in and cross fenced 3l20 acres, s501ed resident,,operators; beef cattle, •dairy farms that have .been "operated by the fall to, plant the Nailed, and ap tlie l'a'bel with 'beef' cattle, 'hogs, and cow,s,;s'heep, hogs, and poultry cannot tenants, under, supervision' with some pear once more in the early sitnimee sheep, 'doubled 'their alfalfa" acreage, be grown on those acres and super-, diversification. In the eastern part of 'to harvest :it and loath it to market, and' began grawing,fieed'crop's, wised from a central headquarters. All the United 'States, are corporation These 'men do not live on the land, There are 'thirteen sources of =- They are' recruited when the need for come on 'Legume Farm, owned by L. themoccurs and dispersed when it is IH. Gale, Peuliseot 'Coualty, 'Missouri. :saltisified, This is a atypical co.np'oratiosi ,farm livestock. and Most all ,crops require dairy fawns' and in the south are the personail attention, of . a farmer corporation cotton farms or planta - who is directly interested in them, dons. But they are essentially similar in that, most of them are dependent 011 000 or, at Moat, a few sources o They' are: butter, milk, eggs, broilers, Diversified farming .is a year -around hogs, 'honey, cotton, soybeans, , sweet job. It cannot be handled by season- , One of the coilintonest coinplaints of infants is worms, and .the most effective application far •them ie Mother Gfaves' Worm Exterminator,