St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-06-08
Another Learned Profession.

In an essay published in the current
number of Harper's Magazine on Agri-
culture as a profession, Mr.. James K.
Reeves predicts that the present genera
ton will seethe limit of the territorial ex-
pansion of agriculture in this country. Ad-
hitting that the forecast is justified by
statistical evidence, and remembering that
the population of the country is increasing
with unprecedented rapidity, several con-
illusions of great Importance Immediately
follow. The fir. of these is an inevitable
rise in the price of arabic land everywhere
in the United States in the near future.
The second is the steadily increasing neces-
sity for the faithful reservation OF the
public domain for actual settlers. The
third is the growing demand for intensive
culture, and for general and thorough
knowledge of all the sciences practically
related in agriculture.
The most valuable thing that we pos
sess is the soil beneath our feet. We have
hitherto undervslued it because in the
country it is chesp and abundant. The
young men who throng our colleges are,
for the most part, preparing themselves
for a professional career. They shun agri-
culture because they regard it as hard,
unremunerative and undistinguished en-
ployment. This aversion seems to be gen
eral The percentage of the population of
the United States engaged in the cultiva-
ton of the soil is steadily decreasing, the
the cities are overcrowded and the army of
the unemployed grows from year to year.
Nor can it be denied that there are facts
which, taken by themselves, account in
some measure for the prevalent distaste
for farm labor. For instance, an agent for
II A Il, hat
the average income of farmers in New
York for 1886 was only 81 per cent on
their capital invested, and without allow
ing anything for their own labor. Indeed,
it may be said that grain growing and
stock raising are nowhere profitable on
high priced lands under the old system of
agriculture The New York farmers are
now turning their attention more and more
to truck farming, and they find ready
| and profitable market for their fruits,
vegetables and dairy products in the great
metropolis, which is so easily within their
reach.
| The great secret of success both in
truck farming and in grain growing, con-
sists in intensive cultivation. The aver
age yield of wheat in the United States is
only twelve bushels per acre but that
yield is far below the capacity of the aver
age acre. Mr.. Reeves tells that ''Prof
Blunt, of the Colorado Agricultural Col
lege, planted upon an exact square acre
seven and one-half pounds of hand-picked
wheat in rows eighteen inches apart, and
at harvest threshed out sixty-seven bush
els, and again upon seventy six square
feet he planted seventy-six kernels OF ex-
ira fine seed, weighing forty five grains
and the product was ten and one-half
pounds, or nearly at the rate of 100 bush
els per acre" Under the common system
the seed is sown in rows only eight inches
apart, and an average of one and half
bushels of seed is used per acre. Prof
Blunt estimates that our wheat growers
annually bury in the soil fifty million
bushels of wheat, where it is not only
thrownsaway, but where it actually de
creases the resultant crop"
There are 43, $50 square feet in an acre
of ground. If every square foot in the
acre should yield a product worth 5 cents,
the money value of the acres total yield
would be $217S Mr.. E. P. Roe affirms
in his ''Play and Profit in My Garden"
that he has secured something more than
two thousand dollars from two acres, and
the statement is not incredible when we
reflect that it is not difficult to raise five
cents worth of vegetables or small fruits
upon square foot Of ground. But, as we
have said, such results can be obtained
only by intensive farming or gardening,
and intensive farming or gardening, and in
tensive cultivation in its turn demands a
knowledge of several practical sciences.
Agriculture is now about to take rank
with the learned professionally, o. Pica-