The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1855-03-22

ducts.
There is paper in the report of the Com.
missioner of Patents for 1893, from which
the Utica Gazette complies some singular
facts in relation TO the decrease 10 the pro-
ductiveness of American soil. The commits
sioner contends in the article to which we re.
fer that:the entire policy of American States
men has been at war with the true principles
of tillagc and husbandry from the first settle
ment Of the continent to the present time.
Ipstead of intoxicating the public duty to feed
the land that both feeds and clothes all classes
and all generations, our statesmen and pull
teal economists have established a policy
al taught doctrines which render it wholly
unjusiifabie to supply cotton, tobacco and
grain for home consumption, without serious
ly injuring the natural resources of the soil.
New York is cited as an instance of the
increasing nproductiveness of soil in the
older States. We proceed to give o brief
abstract Of his statements.
In 1645, there were l7,737. 96S acres under
Improvement in that State; i'm 1850 the num-
Der had increase to lS,40S,96S Gain in FIVE
years--67l ,692. If the land neither increas
ed nor decreased in fertility, the neat stock,
horses, &c. &C., should have gained IN the
same ratio with the increased area brought
under cultivation. II the land yielded more
food for man and his domesticated animals
per acre in 1850 than it did in 1916, then it
would have increased in productiveness; but
If it produced less, the legitimate inference is
that it must have parted with more of the
essential elements Of crops than it required
Now mark the figures. The number of
horses in the State in lS45, was 5O5, l55; in
1850, il was 447,O14; showing decrease of
5S,l4l in five years. During this period,
moreover, a large number of horses were
brought into the State and sold in the princi-
pal cities. The decrease of horses in farming
districts must have been not far from 100 900
instead of an increase proportionate to the
increased number of acres of improved land.
In 1915 there were 999,499 cows MIXED
in the State: in 1850, 93l,324; showing a
decrease OF 6S. O66, in place of gain as there
should have been bad the soil not been de-
Perforated, and with S.. al less horses 10 feed,
and 671'6S2 acres of land more for dairy pur-
poses.
Of the cattle there were l,O72,S4O in 1915
and S43,3l5 in 1850; showing decrease of
566O9l.
only 3,453 24l in 1850.
ing of in five years of 2,990.635. 1t would
take 100000 cows to replace all the sheep
slaughtered, to say nothing of the diminished
number of other domestcated animals.
Nor is the falling off of crops in the MAORI
ty of cases hardly less remarkable.
The decrease during the same period of
potatoes, was S,225.O56 bushels; of peas and
beans, 1882 .O59 bushels; of flax. I,O56 ,4s4
pounds, of wool 3,794,527 pounds; of wheat,
279,624 bushels; of buckwheat, 456,724
bushels.
The only crops in which there was an in
crease were corn, rye and oats.
The writer estimates that two-thrds of all
the improved lands in the State are damaged
to the extent Of at least three dollars per acre
a year, involving an annual loss of S25 ,O0O,-
600.
The remedy will be found-if found at all
in erection Of Agricultural Colleges, and
the consequent dissemination of the principles
of Agricultural science among farmers.
The writer remarks in conclusion:-If ag-
ricultural sciences are never taught in the
United States and never properly studied
how is it possible for them to be understood.
Without qualified teachers, without text
books, without agricultural schools or agricul.
tural statistics worthy of the name, and with
out popular sympathy, how is change to be
effected for the better! Thirty years ago we
thought agricultural education would soon be
popular; now we believe that one or two gene
rations must live and die before we shall
fairly begin to investigate the true principles
of farm economy. Iffour-ifths of the ele-
ments of fertility contained in the residue Of
the food consumed by the twenty-five millions
of people in the United States were restored
to the land, the gain to the latter beyond
what it now receives would be equal TO one
hundred million dollars year.