USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 51
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Despite the extent to which agricultural mechanization has advanced, there are as yet several farm operations in the state which require human hands. Among these are the picking of beans and berries, apples and other tree fruits, melons, and tomatoes. Moreover, the efficiency of farm machines depends upon constant inspection and attention.
The mechanization of the farm has had vast social consequences. The backbreaking and spirit-deadening toil of the New York farm men and women has been reduced. One has only to compare the status of the farmer's wife and daughters in the 1880's with that of the mid- twentieth century to appreciate this change. At the earlier date the farm women of the state, with few exceptions, were busy from early morning to late evening. Without the conveniences of the modern farm home, and devoted to the principle of self-sufficiency, they not only reared children but prepared the meals, did all the baking and laundry work, tended the garden and sometimes the poultry, and on occasion helped with the milking and the harvest. Mechanization of the farm home has, within limits, urbanized the farm women of today. Even though many of them may still do their own laundry, for example, the washing machine is a vast improvement over the wash tub and the ribbed washboard over which our grandmothers perspired.
Mechanization was a powerful factor in bringing the independent, self-sufficient farmer into the orbit of capitalistic agriculture. In earlier days when agricultural implements were few and often homemade, it was relatively easy to become a farmer. All one needed was plenty of brawn, a yoke of oxen or a team of horses, a farm wagon, a plow, a
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homemade harrow, a horse cultivator, a horse-drawn mower and hay- rake, and a few tools. A few hundred dollars would suffice for equip- ment. Farms were available for rent or could be worked "on shares." With the increase in mechanization, however, more funds were im- perative to purchase the additional machinery and to acquire land, which, despite periodic depressions, rose steadily in value from the close of the Civil War to the end of World War I. To obtain the neces- sary funds, the farmer turned increasingly to specialization and "cash" crops. Although general farming did not succumb entirely, each passing year witnessed the growth of agrarian capitalism. Despite the change, not all farmers of the state were prosperous. Much depended on the competence and business acumen of the individual farmer, the location of his farm, the quality of its soil, and his speciality. Every farmer was also subject to factors beyond his control, such as frosts, droughts, exces- sive rainfall, wind and hail storms, unseasonable temperatures and the like. Many, if not all, were affected by fluctuation of the business cycle, credit facilities, government policies, labor supply, the inter- national situation, the price system, and the demand for their speciality. Although accurate statistics portraying the exact economic status of the farmers of the state from 1865 to the end of the nineteenth century are lacking, reliable material for this period indicates that most of the farmers of the state like most of those of the rest of the nation, the South excepted, shared in the general prosperity which prevailed for a few years after the Civil War. "The reports from our Societies," said the New York State Agricultural Society in 1865, "show that improve- ment is the order of the day, and never in the history of our Society, during 24 years past, have the prospects of the agricultural interest of our state been equal to the present." The golden age of New York agriculture of forty cents a pound for butter and two dollars per bushel for wheat came to an end with the depression of the mid-1870's, which severely curtailed the demand for the state's agricultural products. Prices declined sharply and did not recover during the upswing of the business cycle which immediately followed the depression.
The extension and improvement of transportation facilities, especially with lands west of the Mississippi Valley after 1865, contributed ad- versely to the situation. The New York farmers, especially the grain- growers, could not compete successfully with the western producer. Too much of the land of the state being farmed was marginal to begin with, or was depleted by continued faulty husbandry. Moreover, the western farmer could employ the fruits of technological change to better advantage than could the New York farmer. Railroad rates also favored the Westerner. Diversification of farm products on the farms
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of the state did much to cushion the financial strain but not enough to prevent widespread economic hardship. Prices of farm products declined sharply, and land values momentarily nosed downward.
Farsighted persons expressed the need for better farming. Some ad- vocated co-operative buying and selling. Sharp economic cleavages also occurred within the state. The attitude of friendliness and support of an earlier generation toward the railroads changed to one of bitterness and demands for government ownership or at least control. Many joined the Patrons of Husbandry and supported the Greenback movement. Greenback candidates for Congress received some eighty thousand votes in 1878.
Crop failures in Europe temporarily eased conditions, but with the coming of the depression of the 1890's the situation again worsened. Many dairy farmers wholesaled their milk for two and one-half cents a quart. Potatoes sold for from fifty cents to a dollar a barrel. Fruit was so cheap that it did not pay to pick it. Many farmers found it extremely difficult to realize enough from their farm operations to pay their taxes and provide for their families. It was during this discouraging decade of the 1890's that a considerable number of the state's rural people began to ponder the advisability of abandoning farming and seeking urban employment. Others, wedded to farming not only as an occupation but a way of life, hung on grimly. Some began to experiment with other crops as sources of income. With the growth of the state's urban popu- lation, the poultry and dairy industries flourished, and new attention was given to fruit and vegetables. Fortunately, by the end of the century, the business cycle was again on the upswing and the farmers of the state and nation entered upon a period of prosperity which lasted until the close of World War I.
The gradual mechanization of the state's farms, though lessening the need for workers, did not to any great degree minimize the need for manual labor during the decades after the Civil War. The labor of the farmer and members of his family was often supplemented by that of at least one or two "hired men." If the farm speciality was fruit, vegetables, or dairy products, the operator had need for "extra hands," especially in harvest time. Many of the well-to-do farmers of the state also employed household help. To them the "hired girl" was as indispensable as the "hired man." Most of this hired help was recruited from the local community. During the 1870's, 1880's, and 1890's many a farm-reared youth hired out to a neighboring farmer for several years in the hope of accumulating sufficient savings with which to buy stock and equipment to rent his own farm. Many of the hired farm workers, however, had no such incentive and were in- dividuals lacking in occupational skills, education, or mobility. Some
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were ne'er-do-wells, "rolling stones," or persons who had winter jobs but turned to the farm for summer employment.
The traditional hired man who had steady employment, if single, usually lived in the farmer's house and was treated as a member of the family. If married, he might live in the "tenant" house provided by the farmer. Many of these houses are still to be found on the farms of the state. Most farmers did not need or could not afford a year- round hired man and hired their helpers from April 1 to December 1. Wages were miserable, ranging from fifteen to twenty-five dollars a month and "keep," which meant food, lodging, and laundry. Though some farmers' sons thought of the role of hired man as a rung up the agricultural ladder, the low wages was a major deterring factor. Cer- tainly few young people of the state deliberately chose the occupation of hired farm laborer as a life's vocation. For them, the glamour of the urban community with its economically more attractive opportunities was always a mecca. Though in terms of wages the farm labor situation in the state is more favorable today than it was in the last decades of the nineteenth century, the modern farm laborer, unless employed by the large scale commercial farms, is still at a disadvantage in comparison with industrial workers, both as to wages and hours.
One final observation should be made: During the whole period since the Civil War, farm wages in the state as in the nation rose and fell in accordance with successive changes in the selling price of farm products. The farm laborers of the state have felt every turn in the economic fortunes of agriculture. In periods of either inflation or deflation farm wage rates have been the first to move. During the deflationary period following World War I, for example, as soon as farm prices started to decline farm wage rates also declined. Farm wage rates have also been influenced by variations in the supply of farm laborers. The supply, in turn, has largely been determined by birth rate, the number of immigrants, the slight amount of experience or training required to do farm work, and above all by cyclical eco- nomic change. It is obvious and perhaps ironical that the farm labor supply of the state has been greatest during periods of depression.
Of the approximately 125,000 farms in the state in the 1950's, a number somewhat less than fifty years ago, almost 94 per cent are owner-occupied. Nearly all are regarded as family-size farms. Com- paratively few farms of the state remained in the hands of the same family for a long period of time; many old-line farming families of native extraction who, a half century ago, were regarded as the main- stay of their respective communities abandoned the soil. In their declining years many of these farmers, left alone by their children, de- cided to sell out. Others quit the farm because of the economic attractive-
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ness of some other occupation. Still others came to the conclusion that after years of work and worry they were entitled to spend their last years in more leisurely fashion in a nearby village or a more distant urban community. Some became absentee landlords, either renting their farm for a cash stipend or on a share basis. Whatever the cause for their retirement, they were replaced by the sons of a neighboring farmers, by the owners of poor farms who desired to continue farming on better land, or by an immigrant of peasant background. In 1920 the foreign-born farm population of the state numbered 71,276, and of these 25,776 were farm operators. Irish, Italians, and Poles predominated, but there were also some Germans, Scandinavians, and Canadians. Available data seems to indicate that the foreign born have stuck to farming more tenaciously than others. Hard workers, quick to learn, they readily adapted themselves to American farm methods and prac- tices.
Though most of the farms of the state are family farms, there has been a growing tendency in recent years toward big-scale farming. The Bullard Orchards at Schuylerville, Saratoga County, is a good example. Beginning with one speciality, apples, this enterprise expanded from an area of approximately one hundred acres to two thousand acres, all cultivated on a highly scientific basis. In 1955 the apple yield was over a third of a million bushels. In addition, large acreages are annually planted to vegetables-string beans, sweet corn, cabbage, potatoes, carrots, melons, tomatoes, and squash. A large part of the enormous yields of beans, carrots, and squash go to the canneries. A dairy is the most recent development planned for this already large farming venture which annually employs about 150 migratory workers. Similar ventures in other parts of the state are perhaps indicative of the future pattern of New York State agriculture. Unquestionably they reflect a trend in American business enterprise.
Another growing trend in the agricultural history of the state has been the rapid increase in recent years of the part-time farmer. With the rapid expansion of manufacturing and other industrial enterprises, many farmers have sought to improve their economic status by ob- taining employment in nearby industrial plants, often commuting by means of car-pools. Their farm operations are either curtailed or carried on by other members of the family, the operator himself helping out on Sundays, holidays, and after his return to the farm at the end of each day. A surprising number of these part-time farmers not only produce sufficient commodities, such as poultry products, milk, vege- tables, and fruit, for their own household but a surplus for sale. Many, but not all, of these part-time farmers occupy farms of limited acreage
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or poor quality. All belong in that half of the state's farmers who produce less than 10 per cent of the state's farm products.
As one reviews the history of New York State farming during the last hundred years, he is impressed with the contribution which education has made to this particular activity. Despite considerable agitation, little was accomplished prior to 1865 in the way of private or state educational aid to agriculture. It was not until the close of the Civil War that a real beginning was made when the state established the Cornell College of Agriculture, destined to be famous the world over. In 1881 the legislature authorized the establishment of the Geneva Agricultural Experiment Station, which in 1923 became a part of Cornell University. Subsequently three other state-supported institutions of great aid to farmers came into being. These were the New York College of Veterinary Medicine (1894), the New York State College of Forestry (1911), and the State College of Home Economics (1927). State school or technical institutes of agriculture were also established at Canton (St. Lawrence University; 1906), Alfred University (1908), Morrisville (1908), Cobleskill (1911), Farmingdale (1912), and Delhi (1913).
It is difficult to exaggerate the beneficial effects of these institutions upon the state's farming industry. Almost every aspect of New York agriculture and rural life reflects their influence. From them has come the latest technical information on improving crop and livestock pro- duction and marketing and on farm operation by the most profitable methods. They have not waited for the farmer to come to them for advice. In this connection, the pattern was set when, in 1886, the Farmers Institute program came into being. Organized largely through the efforts of Professor Isaac Phillips Roberts of Cornell University and J. S. Woodward of the Rural New Yorker, the first Institute was held at Cornell the same year. Attendance was large, and the ad- dresses, each followed by a spirited discussion, convinced everyone that this was an admirable way of helping the farmers of the state with their problems. The program was broadened and Institutes continued to be held in various parts of the state until 1911, when they were superseded by the county extension work. During the twenty-five-year period of their existence, the staff of the State College of Agriculture and the Geneva Experiment Station participated as Institute lecturers and demonstrators. Those who attended the Institutes had opportunity, moreover, to discuss their problems with practically every important agricultural leader in the state.
The agricultural extension service supported in part by county, state, and federal governments made it possible for every farming county to
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have the services of at least one extension agent trained in agricultural science and practice. The agricultural agent and his staff bring the latest developments in methods and materials to all of the farmers of the county. Through demonstrations, meetings, field and farm visits, and conferences, he made available to farmers, individually and in groups, information on all phases of farming. Closely in touch at all times with the State College of Agriculture at Cornell University through its extension service, the county agricultural agent is kept informed of all the latest results of research. He also has at his service specialists in each of the many subjects related to farming: crops and livestock, insect pests, diseases of plants and animals, new machines and gadgets, and economic information such as costs, prices, and farm management. Assisting the county agents in the distribution of this information are the almost two million bulletins sent free each year by the State College of Agriculture and the Geneva Experiment Station. The daily and weekly press of the state, the agricultural magazines, the county farm bureau newsletter (the first farm bureau was organized in Broome County in 1911), and the State Department of Agriculture and Markets broadcasts and reports are also important agencies of dissemination of agricultural information.
County home demonstration agents aid homemakers in obtaining the latest information on instruction, food preparation, home decoration, child care, and home management. County 4H (Health, Head, Heart, and Hand) Clubs for youth are shown the best and latest agricultural methods, and they practice them in crop and livestock projects of their own suitable to their age.
The farmer has also had the benefit of two other helpful agencies. These are the state fair and the State Department of Agriculture and Markets. Although the proposal for a state fair was urged by several of the members of the New York State Agricultural Society soon after it, organized in 1832, it was not until 1841 that interest seemed to warrant undertaking the project. The first state fair-of two days' duration- was in that year held in Syracuse. Departments were few and prizes small, but attendance and interest were excellent. Thereafter the fair was held annually at different places: Albany, Rochester, Poughkeepsie, Utica, Saratoga, Buffalo, New York City (where it was poorly attended and was financially a failure ), Elmira, and Watertown. By the late 1880's it became apparent that the fair would benefit greatly if it could be held every year in the same place. Syracuse was chosen, and since 1890 it has been the fair's permanent home. From its beginning it has served agriculture of the state well. Fortunately it has escaped the major defects of the commercialization which has all but ruined the county fairs of the state.
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The origins of the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets date back to 1884, when a Dairy Commission was organized by the state. This organization continued to function until 1893, when, in response to the demand that all branches of the state's agriculture should be included, the name was changed to Department of Agriculture. Ap- proximately a quarter of a century later-in 1917-this department, largely for political reasons, was supplanted by a Council of Farms and Markets which elected a commissioner, or administrator. Under this arrangement matters went from bad to worse until in 1921 the legisla- ture placed responsibility in the hand of a single commissioner. In 1926 the Department of Farms and Markets became the Department of Agri- culture and Markets. It has increasingly concerned itself with the enforce- ment of laws and regulations relating to agriculture. With passing years, as the state has assumed control over such problems as plant and animal diseases, insect pests, the grading of fruit and vegetables, feeds, fertilizers, seeds, adulteration and misrepresentation of product, weights and meas- ures, conservation-to mention the more important-the work of this department has greatly expanded.
Most of the state's farmers during the post-Civil War decades had an apparent disregard for the problems of soil conservation and of better returns on farm investments. Many of these farmers were traditionalists -they employed the same methods and procedures that had prevailed in their grandfathers' time. Many feared change and had no use for "new-fangled ways." "Soil mining" by the use of faulty rotation or no rotation at all was a common practice. The land was cropped to death. Manure, if it left the barnyard at all, reached only the nearest fields; those at a distance went unfed. Land that craved lime to counteract the acidity remained sour and was labeled by the farmer as "no good" or "worn out" when it refused to grow corn, wheat, or hay. Hillsides were washed and gullied because of improper methods of plowing and cultiva- tion. There is still evidence in almost every county of these bad practices.
While some wastage still prevails, progress in the direction of better farming and soil conservation during the last half century has been a source of great satisfaction to all those who work for the wise develop- ment of the state's natural resources. The period 1900 to 1930 was de- voted primarily to the gathering and dissemination of information. This educational work was carried on primarily by colleges and schools of agriculture, the New York State College of Forestry, and farm journals, especially the Rural New Yorker and the American Agriculturalist. It was not easy to convince the citizenry of the state and especially farmers and lumbermen that the state's resources were not inexhaustible and that more intelligent methods had to be employed if farm and forest lands were not to be damaged beyond repair. Among those who have failed to
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heed the pleas of those who preach the gospel of conservation are the tenant farmers. The percentage of such farmers in the state is much smaller than in many other states of the Union (it has varied from 10 to 25 per cent for many years ), but their numbers threaten the state conserva- tion effort. The tenant farmer is interested in extracting everything he can while he is on any particular farm. Short tenures, about three years on an average, do not make a conservation program profitable. He is not interested in soil improvement nor in keeping fences and buildings in repair. The heavily mortgaged farmer, as well, is under terrific pres- sure to keep on mining his soil.
The state does not restrict its conservation activities to the preserva- tion and wise use of farmlands. It has long been interested in game, fisheries, protection of streams, state forests, parks, and recreation grounds. More than ever it appreciates the need of urban people to get away from factories and offices and to go where they can hike, swim, boat, fish, ski, hunt, picnic, and relax.
During the last hundred years the farmers' most pressing problem has been an economic one-markets, prices, and credit. The farmers of the state have been fortunate in that they have had as a market the most populous industrialized commonwealth in the Union. At the present time, of the state's population of approximately fifteen million people, more than half live in the area of metropolitan New York City and the greater part of the remainder in the six upstate urban centers: Buffalo, Rochester, Albany-Schenectady-Troy, Syracuse, Utica-Rome, and Bing- hamton. The real pinch in the matter of markets, therefore, has never been the lack of a large consuming population. Nor has it been want of transportation facilities, which have improved enormously since the coming of the motor truck and better highways. Rather, the problem arose and has persisted because of competition and the farmer's inability to exert in any considerable degree control over marketing conditions and the price he obtains for his products. Historically the farmer has been a producer and not a marketer.
The majority of the commercial farmers of the state have never been retailers. They market their product through dealers or middlemen who are either direct buyers for processors like the canning companies or are agents for wholesalers. In either case the farmer, who receives only about 40 per cent of the price the consumer pays for his product, rightly or wrongly feels that the middleman profits at his expense. This situation has led to efforts to improve marketing through the establishment of public markets in urban centers, auction sale of farmer produce, and the formation of co-operative associations for both purchasing supplies and marketing produce.
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