The Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1893-1901, 1893-03-14
Secretary I;u>.. ON the Failure of Asri-
culture.

attaEt
VIII our soil and methods of agriculture
improve So rs To provide food without diff
Guilty for all our population in 1882
II would take the giit of prophecy to an
swcr that inquiry. and though | bear IA
prophets nuinc and am il seventh son |
never found myself gifted in the prophetic
line. | can give y.iI my opinion rs to the
probable relative production of this coun-
try when all its available land is subject t.
Village. but who is going to tell me what
our population viii be in 1888? | see that a
writer in Il recent magazine estimates that
it may be | ,eoo,J o 600 in 1890, but | cannot
help thinking that in making such an esti
mate he has INDUCED IA little too much in
prophecy for ordinary men endowed with
but the usual number of senses.
As to the possible productiveness Of this
country, ! would not hesitate TO affirm that
not more than o~ne-fourth of the land avail.
able tor tiliage in the United States is now
under cultivation. Consequently, without
any further Improvements in agricultural
methods aud with no more care than is ry-
ercised at present, the mere extension of
tillage to all the available LANE would mul
tiply production fourfold.
Now. | have already more than once ex.
pressed the conviction that the yield per
acre of most of our staple crops could he in.
creased simply as the result of better farm
ing and the application of the best methods
now available by 80 per cent. Suppose this
Improvement to take place and you nave a
siNfoid increase of our present production.
Now, then, much Of the land which remains
to be brought under cultivation must be
cultivated by means of irrigation or re-
claimed by drainage. and we know that
vixen land Is cultivated under the condi
lions neess~ss 10 make these lands avail
able the yield is greatly in excess Of that
Which il cultivated by the ordinary meth
ods.
All these factors must be taken into ac-
count in estimating ear possible futurc pro
ductIon, anu We have not yet touched upun
what inventive gcuia, and science rlay
discover in the interes, ui greater proauc.
tion and diminished waste III lie next hun
dred years. but in the light q what these
agencie. have accump.ish1dinthe past hun,
dred years, whether the population Of this
country IA hundred years hence will lee a
thousand million souls or Tot, | think |
have said enough to relieve your mind of
any anxiety lest your children or your chill
dren's children should have to 10 hungry
for want If sufficient productiveness of
United States soil. There is one thing more
you must remember. and that is that BE-
fore our own people go hungry we will
stop exporting food products, and the aver
aye exports of the past year or two would
feed quite a number If hungry young
Americans.
A~sfegarls exporting food products, while
no one can realize more than ! do the in-
portance Of our export trade, | would OF
course rather see our own demand increase
10 the extent 81 consuming all we produce
at home, aud this suggests to me that
there is "A good deal OF wild talk about
shrttiug OF completely ri iSEfi"Tatiea
from European countries. Discrimination
As TO the class Of emigrants that we should
vslsnlne to our shores is al very well, but