Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1900-02-02
CAREFUL PARTING.
Worst Before the State
Grain Growers Association at
Fargo.

Ia ii' CpSAAiAhS wv W. LANS ~
growers Of the state at Fargo Presi-
dent Worst Of the agricultural college
made the following remarks, which
will be Of general interest and benefit:
The belief is general that agricul-
tural education, and state prosperity
are %inseparably united. True, for a
brief period, while our rich soils are
giving up the accumulated fertility OF
countless ages. a prodical system of
grand larceny against nitrogen, humus
and other soil constituents may be pur-
sued with impunity and apparently
without detriment; but as surely as
the present destruction of pine in the
northwest will in a few years depopu-
late the forests, sc certainly will our
prevailing methods of farming end in
soil exhaustion. We have already
reached Il point where discussion is
profitable, although but two decades
have passed since the sod was broken.
The farmers of the area embraced by
this convention perhaps do not fully
realize the wonderful wealth nature
has placed in the soil at their disposal.
This great wealth must not be wasted.
The farm should be so cultivated and
the biprOducts so utilized, and such re-
turns made to the soil as will pelpet-
uate its productiveness. a thousand
years hence it should be richer in those
elements necessary to produce profit
able crops than it is today. Common
patriotism demands, therefore. that the
tremendous burden of restoring a
wasted fertility be not forced upon our
children's children. not that we may
do better. but that we may perform
II work wit more skill. These
northwestern states are peculiarly sit
uated, and the soil and climatic con-
ditions specially adapt them to fill Il
great place i the future of our coun-
try and of the world. The net surplus
product of our bread and meat will
constitute II future wealth. and the
demand for it will increase as the
worlds population is augmented and
the production of food is driven with
in ever narrowing circles. We can
afford to husband cur wonderful re-
sources. 1t is little less than GRIM
inal to do otherwise.
Every farmer should be 4 close OBJ
server. an ardent student of nature,
and he should look upon u%nscientific
agriculture and slip-shol farm work
us we all do upon malpractice in sur
gerry or dentistry.
The law does not permit of medical
practice until the practitioner has
earned qualification credentials. that
his patients may not suffer harm on
account of quackcry or incompetence;
but a careless farmer may butcher the
soil and propagate weeds for a whole
township without serious comment. if
he is Il good fellow.
Why should so much CARE be eXer-
cised for the health CT this generation
and so little for what shall produce
the food 70" the next? Or, rather,
why should we not take reasonable
c%ogniZance of both? For the latter
is as serious Il: problem as the former.
AS we express it, 'soil wears OUT;
crops average lighter and of inferior
quality; HeSsian fly, weeds and rust
greatly injure large grain areas. and
smut is no r%especter Of persons, fields,
or localities. Frost. hail and gopllers
do untold mischief as well.
Some of the plaques are utterly be-
yond human control, but most of them
are either largely or absolutely con-
trollable and others are durable.
The lei annual losses to the farm
erS from these causes, even from evils
that are durable, are appalling. The
amount reaches far up into millions.
Weeds and smut alone cause a net loss
to the farmers of North Dakota of not
less than $5.000.0OO annually, and in
the long II we give away ~bi-products
that are worth as much more. In part
OF this w are the immediate losers,
and in part the less falls upon poster
ity.