Plenty in the Smokehouse

Under the wet Indiana sky last week the delicate green of winter wheat lighted loam-black fields. The last snow had melted. Fat sows, trailed by stiff-legged shoats, nosed through the early budding clover. Factory-bright tractors roared across the fields; loaded manure spreaders clumped and rumbled. The smell of freshly turned earth was fragrant in the air. It was spring in Tipton County, one of the fattest agricultural areas in the state, and things looked good.

Tipton's farmers had the relaxed air of men who have plenty of meat in their smokehouses, though they weren't the kind to crow about it. "I don't aim to get caught if anything happens," said Farmer Clarence Horton. Horton, who farms 200 acres on a 50-50 basis with the owner, started from scratch 20 years ago; the last five years have set him firmly on his feet. He now owns two tractors and a combine; his barn and tool sheds are jammed with plows, harrows, seeders. "I have bought everything I am going to buy," said Horton. "I've got a full line of equipment, about $10,000 worth, I guess, and I'm going to keep it."

Deepfreeze. A few miles down the road, Bob Orr finished washing up at the sink and lowered his big, shirtless frame into a new upholstered chair in his living room. "We've worked hard and we're proud of it, but we figure we have earned everything we got," he said. Last year, he spent $3,000 remodeling his kitchen--an electric stove, automatic dishwashing machine, a big Deepfreeze, a whole set of fancy kitchen cabinets. He has "three or four" radios around the house, including a radio-phonograph for the kids; his four barns are in top shape. This year he is thinking of putting concrete floors in the feeding lots. It will cost him $600 to $700. "We're being cautious," said Bob Orr. "I'm not buying a thing that isn't absolutely necessary."

No Worry. Farmer Orr could afford to be cautious. As spring came, Tipton's banks bulged with the accumulated prosperity of seven fat years. The county's 14,000 citizens had socked away $10 million in Government bonds during the war, "and it's still back there in those lockboxes, at least $8 or $9 million of it," said Russell Martin, president of Tipton's largest bank. Many mortgages had been paid off in full; the per capita debt was the lowest in 25 years.

Bill Frost, whose crossroads general store out on Highway 31 did $68,000 worth of business last year, figures trade will be a little off this year, but not much. Said Bill: "Nobody is worrying much. It's only when you're in debt that you start worrying, and I don't know anyone who is in debt." Crop prospects are good. Said Farmer Horton: "I don't look for prices to go a whole lot lower. We're not alarmed." "Nope, things don't look too bad," echoed Mrs. Horton, shutting the door of her new $385 refrigerator and flicking on the fluorescent lights in the kitchen.

Last week the Indiana Farm Bureau began polling its members about their 1949 vacation plans. Usually the Farm Bureau sponsors tours around the U.S. This time, for the first time, the bureau had a question to ask prospering Hoosier farmers: How would they like sponsored tours to Hawaii, Alaska, Europe, South America?

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