Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1892-03-11

been charged with the great fall in prices
OF cereals from 1882 to 1886, and the
erroneous increase OF cultivated area for,
some years earlier than that doubtless
explains it to q certain extent. Yet the
markets have every year taken the pro-.
duct OF that year, and still the saying
that the world is always within a year.
of starvation has practically held true
moreover, although between 1875 and
1890 the cultivated area of the United
States increased more than one-third,
and the population about only one-eight,
between 1885 and 1890 cultivation in
creased but one, fourteenth, and popula-
ton about one-ninth. So that if in the
earlier period the s~torehouses of the
world received and put away large sur
plus stocks, it would seem that>such
stocks could not last long, if depending
for replenishment on American fields.
Meantime public lands and cheap lands
| fit for cultivation are becoming scarce,
and tn, farmer who informs himself
looks for a day when increased consump-
ton without relative increase of new
cultivation will put him ION top
"When that day comes, it will be seen
that not only is the farmer benefited, but
the whole industrial nation. The farmer
who gains little spends little. When
farming becomes truly profitable, as are
other kinds Of business, the farmer will
be a much more valuable customer to
the trader and the manufacturer than he
has ever been. 1t is strange that fact
does not suggest itself to every thought
full a AS poor a customer. as he is
compelled to be to-day, trade is depend
ent upon him. II, in ii given year, crops
are poor, trade and transportation are
depressed; but, if good, every industry
grows active"
"But are you speaking of conditions
as they exist in North Dakota, senator?'
mo, but of the genera! situation. The
farmer of North Dakota has in his favor
the fact that, with the fertility of the
soil and it's wonderful staying qualities,
SO that artificial fertilizing and other
expensive methods are not required, and
withaland easy to till, he can carry on
cultivation cheaper than can be done al
most anywhere else. The farmer who
owns land enough to work to advantage
with modern machinery of large capa-
city, need want no better business. But,
with these advantages, low prices lead
the skilltul and diligent farmer to in
crease his holdings, for with a small
profit he cannot make money without a
large output. In fact, the tendency in
wheat growing regionsis to larger farms.
Probably it is to be regretted, but the
fact cannot be denied. And the danger
is that eventually, if low prices continue,
the small wheat farmer will disappear,
as has the small manufacturer. II wheat
must be raised on factory margins, it
will have to be raised by factory meth
DDS. It would be better for the country to
pay the producer of cereals SO per cent.
more than be is now getting than to lose
the small farmer. Aud it seems, likely
that such ar advance will come. It is
estimated that the wheat and rye con
Stunning world requires fer an average
crop of those cereals nearly 100000
acres additional each year, and it must
be remembered that at least three times
as much land is required for other
staples.
"Where is all this new land to be
found? Some millions of the public
domain, adapted to wheat raising, re-.
main in North Dakota, half as much in
South Dakota ana limited amounts in
other new states. Lands granted to the
railroad can also BE- bought at cheap
prlces-generally at second hand. Blu,
the great area of Uncle Sans domain
fit for cultivation is nearly gone-and
except as irrigation brings by slow pro
cess some arid land into use, the chances
for continued enlargement of cultivated
area are we'll on toward the end. Out
ide the United States the Argentine
Republic alone has in sight any consider.
able undeveloped area suitable to cere.
ais. Cheap money issued on land mort.
cages seems to have submerged those
plains and to forbid any expectation OF
their early recovery"
"Do you then look for a scarcity OF
cereals soon?" .-
"Not a scarcity, because with the in
creased prices of grain, which seem in
evitable, farmers in the older states will
be able to bring under cultivation guam.
titles of land now lying waste. Intensive
cultivation, also, will produce larger
~crops-such cultivation cannot be prac
ticed now because too expensive. If ]
we're to adopt methods TO cause an acre
of land, now producing eighteen
or twenty bushels of wheat, tt
produce half as much more, tina
added half would cost rs much az
the whole original yield-that is twice
as much a bushel. The world will no
60 hungry for a long time, but it must a
an early day pay more for its food, If
am not mistaken"
The Queen Had No Change. a
The English queen has an income O
5000 a day, and yet she has had many
queer little experiences of finding herself
penniless in awkward situations. On on.
occasion she called a wayside mendicant tx
her carriage only to find that neither sh'
nor the princess with her had a shilling
and this regal queen of England and EN-
press of India was obliged to borrow SOM
acenca frnm the keaner of the tollpata naar