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that for long had been storage places for undisturbed dèbris from stores and from meat, fruit, and grocery houses were made passable and presentable.

He found that the water department had been made a haven for political favorites. He discharged the chief engineer, imported an engineer from a neighboring village, and dismissed three other men whose chief duty had been to draw their pay. All the men had "friends"; most of them had supported the administration. Of course, someone went to the mayor, but he gave them little satisfaction. "Stockly was running things."

But

Mr. Stockly did not fill the places of the deposed men he did not need to. He established the unit system in the boiler room, and insisted that every pound of coal be forced to produce its proper amount of steam. The oldtimers laughed at the idea of weighing coal and measuring steam and making out reports. and all the other "flub-dubbery." Hancock had annually bought an entire cargo of coal, as much as one of the smaller freight boats could bring up from down the lakes. Mr. Stockly proved that there was plenty of coal to last over a season, and Hancock did not expend seven or eight thousand dollars for coal last spring. He also invested fifty dollars in new valves for a "worthless" pump, and the engine is now lifting as much water as it did when new, and the principal pump, after being thoroughly overhauled, is now being used only part time.

Hancock had had a smoke ordinance for a number of years. It was a dead-letter. The most flagrant violator was the city hall itself. Mr. Stockly endeavored to enforce the smoke ordinance, until he found the mayor and clerk had neglected to sign it.

Many merchants in Hancock used the sidewalks as display grounds for their wares. Pedestrians, when there was not room on the sidewalks, took to the gutter. Mr. Stockly banished the sidewalk obstructions; moved display cases back of their owners' property line, and restored to the people their own.

Hancock occupies a beautiful site midway up the slope of a rugged hill that towers seven hundred feet from the level of Portage Lake. Angling up the hill to the portals of the city is Front Street. Formerly it twisted and turned, narrowed and widened, slanted and bulged. When a freshet came along huge slabs of the old plank sidewalk which lined it on one side would be washed over the brink of the precipice to the flats fifty to a hundred feet below. Mr. Stockly condemned a corner of a leading citizen's property which caused one of the most

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abrupt angles. The leading citizen objected and went over to the "antis." Mr. Stockly went ahead with the work. When it is completed, Hancock will have a wide, straight avenue, gradually leading up from the bridge which connects the city with Houghton, and which will be a "gateway" worthy of the

name.

Mr. Stockly never was and never can be a politician; a hundred men in Hancock might have been chosen who would have held the job, satisfied the public in general, and not made a single enemy. Stockly, handicapped as he has been by his rough-hewn personality, lost public support at the election on April Ist. But his work has not been a failure from the standpoint of the physical Hancock. It is a better place, a cleaner place, a healthier place. Five playgrounds, among other monuments, will remain as a tribute to the general manager who "failed."

Hickory, a busy little furniture manufacturing town in North Carolina, is the latest city to adopt the Staunton plan. The population of Hickory is about four thousand. A correspondent there writes that

Our new commission charter was enacted as law on the 17th of March and our first primary lowed by the regular municipal election on election will be held on April 21st, to be folApril 28th.

Our new form of government is similar to that of Sumter, S. C., in that the business of the city will be in the hands of a city manager, subject to the supervision of four city councilmen and a mayor, all elected at large. The city manager will be employed by the city council, and must give all his time to the city's business. His term of office will be at the pleasure of the city council. The mayor and city council must meet once a week and will receive only a nominal salary.

Our plan embraces the initiative and referendum and the recall both as to elective offices and legislation; publicity in all public affairs; monthly itemized statements of receipts and expenditures; control of public schools; substitution of school visitors for school directors; abolition of fee system; and automatic collection of taxes.

These experiments in simpler and more business-like administration of municipal business are encouragingly successful. The rapid acceptance of them by other cities is a hopeful sign of the new demand for efficiency in government.

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FORWARD TO THE LAND

OT long ago a man came into this office in search of information about land. He wanted to leave the city for the soil. He had spent six months looking for a place to settle. He had looked in many districts, among others in that part of Central Illinois shown in black on the map, and in a part of Alabama shown in white. He had wasted much in railroad fare because he had not decided whether

in nothing else. That is constructive speculation, and the chief risk of the speculation will be that the person who tries it may not be able to carry it through. Almost always the land will do its part.

The land shown in black on the map is $125 land. Except in the irrigated West, land that sells for $100 an acre is part of a developed farm in a region where the markets, schools, roads, etc., or at least some of them, are well developed. The

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WHERE LAND IS HIGH AND WHERE IT IS LOW

SHOWING BY COUNTIES THE AVERAGE PRICE PER ACRE OF LAND CLASSED AS FARMING LAND

he wanted to go forward to the land or forward to the farm - whether he wanted to engage in speculation, or to acquire and maintain an established business.

The land shown in white on the map sells for less than $10 an acre, and that usually means land and little else; in other words, few schools, roads, telephones, markets, etc. To buy such land, to build it up, and to help build up a community with it will yield great profits in increasing land values if

risk and effort on such a farm are less than on the other kind. The speculative return is more limited, also. The two kinds of investments call for different types of men. Different roads lead forward to the land and forward to the farm. One who wishes to go to the country should look well and see which road he wishes to take, particularly since there is another road which leads to the "estates" where men spend their city-made money.

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OREGON ORGANIZING COUNTRY CHILDREN

BY

MUSA GEER

ESS than ten years ago, State Superintendent Alderman, in a little Yamhill County school in Oregon, saw the children of the school taking up a collection to buy popcorn. At the same time, he saw a plot of vacant ground near the school house, and it occurred to him that they might better raise the popcorn than buy it.

From that idea 60,000 children have become better citizens. They have raised not only popcorn, but chickens, pigs, melons, potatoes, asters, roses, almost every thing that grows.

Many prejudices were broken down and, without realizing it, the fathers learned from the boys much that was efficient.

In the meanwhile the Oregon Agricultural College, the coöperating influence between the Oregon farmers and the scientists, established the "extension farm movement." This not only aids the parents, but helps the children. Provision was made by the college for a field worker to visit farming centres all over the state. Information was given out telling about ways to increase acreage yield, rotation of crops, better market facilities, more economical and better cooking.

The schools soon became the social centres, where a community spirit grew. This year lantern slides and phonographic records of the world's good music will instruct and entertain these gatherings.

The State Bankers' Association, when they heard of the idea, called it "earth education" and lent their aid to it. Two years later, Mr. O. M. Plummer, secretary and treasurer of the Portland Union Stock Yards, became convinced of the value of the children's work and, through his organization, helped to publish fifty thousand copies of a booklet that gave practical and scientific information on "How to Raise Prize-Winning Pigs." At the same time, the Commercial Club of Portland put out a similar publication on "Boys and Girls on the Egg Problem." Both these booklets were distributed to the pupils in all parts of the state. Superintendent Alderman wrote the profits from a fifteen-dollar prize on a teachers a letter in which he said:

Ask the children if they know how to grow potatoes, pumpkins, corn, etc. Ask how many of them like watermelons or muskmelons. Ask them if they know how to feed chickens; if

they know that if they buy three settings of eggs from one neighbor and three hens from another, and in March put the two together, they will probably raise some prize winners for the fair. The children of Oregon can double the egg production in three years.

A marvelous interest was awakened in the boys and girls of Oregon. Gardens Gardens were laid out at home and at school. Good work brought good results and gained the hearty support of the parents.

The Oregon State Fair, in 1912, spent $3,500 in prizes for school industrial work. The railroads and electric lines gave free transportation to all displays that were made by the children. One little girl, who lived off the railroad, wheeled her prize-winning chickens two miles in a baby buggy to the fair. Another little girl, seven years old, put thirty dollars in the bank after the fair was over-her net

trained colt, a five-dollar prize for the biggest watermelon, and other cash prizes for vegetable displays. The best cake was baked by a twelve-year-old boy.

The Oregon legislature of 1913 passed defray the expenses and salaries of two a measure providing an appropriation to industrial field workers, who are to visit every county in the state, make a study of representative schools in every county, and file reports of existing conditions with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. One result of the hog-raising contest in 1912 was that enough pigs were raised by the boys and girls to supply the Portland Union Stock Yards for three months without any outside help.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS ABOUT FARM LANDS

86.-Q. We think of starting a meat market and grocery store in Brooklet, Bulloch County, Georgia, and of raising lots of hogs as well. What do you think of the place and the plan?

A. The census of 1910 gives the population of Brooklet as 361, which we consider scarcely a large field for the commercial side of your plan. The hog-raising phase ought to be well adapted to conditions in the county, in connection with general farming. The percentage of improved land on farms is steadily increasing, and the average value of land has risen from $4.48 to nearly $22 an acre in ten years. We advise a careful study of the United States Soil Survey of Bulloch County, 1910, as your next step.

87.-Q. I want to take up a Government homestead, but hardly know which state to choose. How would you compare Colorado and Minnesota for fruit raising or general farming on such lands?

A. Outside of the Government irrigation projects there is to-day comparatively little homestead land that is really valuable for farming, especially for fruit raising. Such opportunities as there are, are likely to be better in Colorado for the specialized types of agriculture, and in Minnesota for general farming and dairying. We suspect that the traveling expenses involved in locating a satisfactory homestead would almost equal the total cost of buying better land that could be found with less search.

88.-Q. May I inquire about agricultural conditions in Sherman and Decatur counties, Kansas? Is there sufficient rainfall, or a supply of water for irrigation; and what crops are grown?

A. Conditions in these counties are thoroughly discussed in the Reconnaissance Soil Survey of Western Kansas, 1910, which you can obtain free from the United States Department of Agriculture. For more detailed climatic data ask the Weather Bureau at Washington for Section 38 of the Summary of Climatological Data. The chief crops and their acreages in Sherman County, according to the 1910 census, were: corn, 171,034 acres; wheat, 54,074; alfalfa, 41,624; wild grasses, 21,553; coarse forage, 8,776; and oats, 7,388; and in Decatur County, corn, 109,002 acres;

wheat, 80,771; coarse forage, 14,705; alfalfa, 8,658; wild grass, 6,565; and barley, 5,717.

89.-Q. A friend and myself, both familiar with practical and scientific agricultural methods, think of starting a farm on the order of the Taft Ranch described in the January WORLD'S WORK, though, of course, much smaller. We wish to raise cattle, hogs, horses, poultry, fruit, and vegetables. Our capital is $13,000. Which of the following states do you consider best suited to our purpose: Arkansas, Texas, California, or Oregon?

A. Either the Ozark country of Arkansas and Missouri or eastern Texas ought to supply the necessary items of cheap land, mild climate, sufficient rainfall, and sufficient available acreage to permit future expansion. Soil and climate are excellent in California and western Oregon, but prices are likely to be prohibitive. In our opinion, the success of the Taft Ranch depends as much upon the magnitude of its operations as upon any other element. As $13,000 is probably a small fraction of the investment it represents, you are, in this respect at least, somewhat handicapped. However, many of the details of management on the Taft place should prove successful on other farms whether large or small.

90.-Q. Please advise what a young married man, in danger of losing a $2,000 position through a change in his business. should do with $4,500 as an investment. I have a liking for farming, but do you think two people, willing to work hard, could get a living from a small farm for a year or two, looking toward success later?

A. We believe that two people endowed with health, a real love for the country, and, if possible, some farm knowledge, could make a success of farming with $4,500 in several parts of the country, but it is for you to choose whether your investment shall be in this direction or along financial lines. We frankly believe that a good farm will give greater returns for the amount invested than the strongest 4 per cent. or 5 per cent. bonds, but, of course, the paying ability of the farm depends on the investor himself, whereas the return from stocks and bonds does not. You must expect, however, to take at least two years, and probably four or five, to get really established.

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SARAH COMSTOCK 279

THE INTERLOCKING DIRECTORATES OF WAR D. S. JORDAN 277
MRS. ANDREW, IRONMASTER (Illustrated)
A NEW ART IN HEALTH EXHIBITS (Illus.)
WHO GOVERN THE UNITED STATES II (Illus.) ARTHUR W. PAGE 293
THE NEW FREEDOM VII -

J. W. HARRINGTON 286

WOODROW WILSON 302

E. T. ALLEN
SAMUEL P. ORTH

310

315

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CONSERVATION THAT PAYS ITS WAY -
GERMANY: A MODEL OR A WARNING?
THE TRUTH ABOUT TUBERCULOSIS - - EDGAR ALLEN FORBES
AMUSING AMERICA'S MILLIONS (Illustrated)
CONQUERING THE COST OF LIVING (Illustrated)
"THE ANGEL OF THE ROUNDHEADS"
NINE PATRIOTIC INVENTORS

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DANA GATLIN
H. W. LANIER .341

G. L. PRICE 349
FRANKLIN FISHER 352

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TERMS: $3.00 a year; single copies, 25 cents.

For Foreign Postage add $1.28: Canada 60 cents. Published monthly. Copyright, 1913, by Doubleday, Page & Company. All rights reserved. Entered at the Post Office at Garden City, N. Y., as second-class mail matter

Country Life in America

CHICAGO

The Garden Magazine - Farming

GARDEN CITY
N. Y.

S. A. EVERITT, Treas. RUSSELL DOUBLEDAY, S.

1118 Peoples Gas Bldg. DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY,

F. N. DOUBLEDAY, President H. S. HOUSTON, Vice-President

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