Wichita eagle., 1890-02-18

ton has of late and will continue te
progress at the rate of about 5000. .000t
acres per annum, the surplus entirely
disappearing about 1894, or 1895, when
domestic consumption will overtake pro.
ductIon of food stufTs and the farmer
will again be- prosperous and his pros
perity, and that alone. will bring good
times to the urban populations.
In 1871 the cultivated land employed
In growing the staple crops was ?. 80 acres
per capita, in 1884 it was g. 81 acres. now
reduced to quota of 1926 per capita.
Does this not explain. in the clearest
manner, the existing depression?
| There are six states to which the guilt
or merit of this condition may be di-
rectly attributed. During the past
eighteen years Iowa. Missouri, Kansas,
Nebraska and The Dakotas have in
creased their cultivated areas from Il :
900, 900 to 53,000,000 acres, and these
states can now boast of containing more
| than one fourth of all the land employed
IN the United States in growing the
staple crops. 1t is the addition of these
42, ,000, 900 acres of most fertile lands.
| too quickly brought under the plow, that
| has done more than all else TO produce
the present plethoric condition of the
granaries and stock yards, and this
causes low prices and depression in Its
worst form.
All the data goes to show that each
unit of the population will con-
sumo the product of three acres
of the staple crops and just SO long as
there is an excess of three acres per
capita in cultivation just so long will
the present state OF agricultural conges-
ton continue. Knowing that there was
already too much land in cultivation l
was opposed to opening any part of the
Indian territory, and am still Of the
same opinion that Wichita and every
other Kansas town and the people of
Kansas would have been far better off
could the opening of that territory have
been postponed five or six years when
the land, or its products, will surely be
needed by the ever rapidly increasing
population.
Fhe trouble with the farmer and bust
nessman, especially in the west, is not the
surplus in the treasury at Washington,
but far more serious surplus OF farms,
a surplus Of corn, surplus Of
wheat, surplus of meats and
surplus of all that the American farmer
produces except cotton, and it is this
veXatious surplus, SO difficult to dispose
of, which is haying such q disastrous
effect upon the entire industrial and
commercial interests with the possible
present exception of commission men,
bankers, money lenders and transporta-
ton companies) of this and other nations.
Just as certain as our population in
creaseS is it that there is good time
coming for such of the farmers Is can
manage to escape foreclosure, and this
coming era of prosperity will come from
a readjustment of the disturbed relations
between demand population) and pro-
duction. resulting from the operation of
natural laws which we can not control
and hardly modify but in the meantime
the ailing economical organization must
suffer, as does any other patient, all the
distressing sensations usually attendant
upon a painful and prolonged state of
convalescence which has, without our
taking cognizance Of it, been in progress
for four OF five years past and will re-
Quire about as many years to complete
the restoration to robust health. al
though we may hope for continuous, if
somewhat slow, Improvement. The time
necessary to complete recovery can
be prolonged beyond the time named
only by succession of crops above the
average in yield and one short crop, of
both wheat and corn, would materially
hasten the recovery.
This generation should be profoundly
thankful that speaking comparatively
there are, in the United States, no more
areble lands to be brought into cultlva-
ton.
1t may appear improbable and even
to those now suffering from
the plethoric condition of the granaries
and stock yards that much within ten
years from this day we shall import
large quantities of foreign wheat to feed
our ever increasing population, an an
nual increase SO great as to require
the product Of 5000. 900 acres under the
plow to meet It's wants of the staple
products, while the annual addition of
land employed in producing such staples
to less than half the area
named. venture to predict such inn
portation. The logical sequence is that
in very few years all farm products
will bring much higher prices and good
farm lands become the very best of
property and appreciate rapidly in value.
&. WOOD DAVIS.