The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1888-01-19
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT,
Major Hugh T. Brooks Tells How TO Util-
ize the Waste Places Farms.

Major Hugh 7. Brooks Tells How TO IT'LL
ize the Waste Places ON Farms.
A great many opportunities are un-
improved. Many people are underfed.
and unemployed, while large areas of
land are uncultiyated and unproduct-
i've. Not to speak of frosty and sterile
regions, there are waste places in our
most pOpulouS and best cultivated dis
tricts, to an extent lictle understood.
Accustomed as we are to large areas,
regard the possibilities of production.
Even in cities and villages opportuni-
ties for growing things of beauty and
utility are unimproved. Here, by the
side path of crowded street, linden
or an elm might grow. giving grateful
shade and lending beauty and grace to
the attractions of the town, without
impeding travel. The hooks and cor
ners about the house and Out-buildings
may be occupied with shrubs, trees and
plants with their flowers, fruits and
foliage. Grape-vines may hang their
delicious clusters on the walls, and fes-
toon windows and cOrnice with grace
full drapery. Private and public road
ways may have fruit or timber trees on
each side of them, and so may the
the jagged banks of brooks and streams
trees delightful to look ut and valua-
BILE for USE Hillsides too steep for
profitable cultivation are often stripped
and left naked when they might be
planted with locust. chestnut, walnut,
oak or some enduring timber whose
annual growth would pay interest on
the investment.
Many swamps and marshy places
yielding nothing but malaria. arc suf-
fered to remain year after year, when,
if properly drained. they would become
the most productive land in the world.
The other day. on public road that
runs along hillside, noticed large
apple tree loaded with fruit standing
on the edge of steep bank below the
road. 1t was out of the way of every
body, on land unOccupied, and which
would have remained unoccupied if this
tree had not voluntarily put in an ap-
pearance. If such trees were planted
the whole length of that bank, great
deal of valuable fruit would grow on
them; and, inasmuch as there are many
banks along our roadsides that fire.
quently capsize vehicles in the night, it
would be we'll to plant trees on them as
near as possible to the track, without
obstructing travel, and then by attach
ing a strong wire to them at the proper
height. cheap safeguard would be
provided.
| have in mind narrow rayine
through which road runs; its steep
sides are considered of little or no
value, but in a little nook an English
man with Swiss proclivities has built
neat cottage and planted the hill back
of him with several kinds of fruit-trees,
grape-vines, currants and berries-diS-
ging into the bank and making a small
terrace for each. He gets the finest of
fruit, and often gets it when frosts and
blighting winds damage or destroy it
ON level lands. advise wage workers
paying high rent for poor houses with
dirty surroundings, who prefer to be
their own masters and their own land
lords to 90 where rough. cheap land.
with skillful management, can be made
to yield valuable products. These rough
lands seem to be made for timber and
fruit; they are found in New York, and
especially in Virginia and the Southern
States. Fruit is growing in the public
estimation, and agreeably to the fieness
of things will form a larger part of the
food of the people. Bare places, pro-
ducing nothing. are seen on many hills
and knolls, whose soils have been
washed down by the rains or pushed
down by the plow; they should be
nanured, seeded and left seeded. Pas
cures which have been impoverished by
cropping. produce very little grass, un-
less replenished by fertilizers; their
poorest portions frequently yield moth
ing OF vaiue-waste land.
Instead of enlarging the area of cul-
tivation by stripping the earth of its
timber needed for future use. and for
climatic purposes; instead of pushing
west into the dry. or north into the
cold, let us make the best possible use
of our waste places. No person COM
petent to give an opinion will dispute
that all the products of the State Of
New York could be produced at less
cost on half the land under cultivation
than they are now from the whole. In
other words, IL all the labor, manure
and outlay now expended on the lands
under cultivation in this State. were
bestowed upon one-half of them. the
products would be as abundant as they
are now. The same doubtless might
be said of all the States of the Union.
Certainly than, there is much room fol-
Improvement in American agriculture.