--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - George H. Maughn collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 24 number: 5 published: 1921-03 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'George H. Maughn, "Poor Land vs. Land Poor," *Improvement Era* 24, no. 5 (March 1921): 420–422.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2405unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera2405unse start_page: 420 end_page: 422 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1921-03) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera2405unse publication_year: 1921 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1921, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Poor Land vs. Land Poor Poor Land vs. Land Poor By Prof. Geo. H. Maughn, Ricks Normal College Which is the most difficult undertaking, to try to make a home on poor land, or to be land-poor and try to make a home? Better livestock and less of them make less work and more homes and more of them. Better livestock and less of them make less work and more profits,more pleasure, and better people. Lean feeding makes lean animals and an empty purse, because there is no margin for profits. Too many apples on the tree make little apples and less salable fruit. Better for the land and for future generations if half of the acres of the land-poor man could be left in their native condition until homes could be made upon them. If it were not for increase in value which has come, not because of any real improvement put upon the land by the land-poor man, but in spite of his wasteful husbandry, most land-poor men would be worse off financially. Many are almost bankrupt, even with a liberal increase in values. It is always hardest on the poor family of the land-poor man. There can be no regularity in their lives. There are too many "grub boxes" to get ready and too many irregular jobs to do. For the men and women both, it is hurry from one task to another, before the last is completed. The man who is land-poor overworks. If he has superior crops, or stock, or children, he does not enjoy them because he hasn't time. Inability to care for his stuff, at the right time, causes him loss and annoyance. His fields are full of weeds and pests to worry him and vex his neighbors. He is not a good neighbor because of his bad fences and bad ditches and because he is too busy to be neighborly. If he borrows, he often hasn't time to return the borrowed article. He cannot be a good Saint because he has too many "oxen to get out of the mire" on Sunday. He does not sleep well of nights or rest on the Sabbath. He lives constantly with a promise for a great day in the future. If the day ever comes it is usually in the afternoon of life when his terrible toil has dulled his feelings and desires until he cannot enjoy what he has managed to save from it all. The sons of the land-poor man "get enough" of the farm POOR LAND VS. LAND POOR 421 and leave, swelling the already overcrowded cities. His daugh- ters resolve never to live the kind of a life mother has lived, and so look for husbands who have no symptoms of wanting a farm. And the land-poor man never loves the soil! Men should love the soil as they would a dear friend, as they would a liv- ing thing; for it is alive, and it responds to every intelligent, careful service done it. It is a wonderful piece of the work of God. He has given it to men to use and love, and not to abuse and rob. The good husbandman must love the soil. The man with poor land may make of it, in time, a fertile farm and a good home. If he does he will love it, for into it he has put part of his soul. He has replenished the earth and joy and satisfaction will come to him. Rexburg, Idaho An Appreciation By C. Saxenmeyer [This is the copy of a letter addressed to one of the guides laboring on Temple block, under the direction of the Bureau of Information. The writer, who signs herself as above, adding, "the girl in the chamois coat, who admired the Tabernacle pillars," is one who expresses appreciation, among the many, of courtesies extended to the "strangers within our gates." —Editors.] Just a few lines to express my appreciation of your courtesy today at the Temple grounds. Perhaps I should introduce my- am a pagan, a lineal descendant self first: religiously, I judge, I through the Germanic tribes from the ancient Sun worshiping Aryan of the Asiatic hills; at any rate, I never felt that I could affiliate with any of the religions derived from Semitic sources, without so many mental reservations as to make my vows a nullity. As no thinking individual can live to maturity on this earth without some form of religion, I formulated a doctrine of my own, for myself only, which is pretty well summed up in the twenty-third Psalm; and the Lord's prayer, and the Sermon on the Mount, and has for its scientific base the indestructibility of matter and the laws of matter, whether applied to atoms or universes, which leads me to have absolute faith in the immortality of my soul and in God's disposition of it after the dissolution of my body. Just how or where or when this will —— —— 422 IMPROVEMENT ERA be accomplished, I know as little of as you do, but I firmly believe, nay, I should say, know, that it is so. Your faith is the first logical religion that I have ever met, and I will say that I read part of the Koran, fragments of Zoroaster, and some Brahma, and also Buddha teachings, protestantism in England, as described by Macaulay, some of Catholic ecclesiastical history, which I laid aside when I found that a council of men debated months on the question of the immaculate conception, some three hundred years after Christ's death; also the Old Testament or the earthly and religious history of the Jews; and of all, I must say "Mormonism" is the only one that one can accept with the spirit without offending reason. * * * So far as I have delved into your teachings, and what I have seen of your material accomplishments as shown in your city plan and church buildings, leads me to say that "Mormonism" is the most wonderful religious achievement of all ages. am traveling for pleasure, and for gain of knowledge, and I my short stop-over in Salt Lake City has given I wish to say that me returns far in excess of my highest expectations, and your Temple grounds and Tabernacle are things I shall talk at the remember always, and in my memory hall, your city, your mountains, your mesas, and your religion, shall hold an honored place. Salt Lake City, Dec. 11, 1920. The Crucifixion A mystery to the world, this wondrous theme: Why should God's Son descend from worlds on high, Why for transgressors he, the sinless, die? Discerning not that which doth underlie The sacrifice — the world's victorious scene. "Twas for us all that Christ was crucified Redeemer, he that hostage was for sin As conqueror led the way that we might win, And through the open portal enter in His Church and ever he with him, his "Bride." Lydia D. Alder,