The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-06-11

Occur DQT1UG the NCAk G4ALg @Co@S' ~
Of Hon. John Hyde, statistioian OF the u
s. Department of Agriculture.
written by John Hyde, for The Youths Com
nanion. Published in The Progressive Far
meT by special permission or Perry Mason q
Col
Out of every thousand boys of ff-
teen who are now readers of The
Youths Companion, five hundred
and twenty-five should be alive at
the end of the year 1850, and out of
every thousand girls of the same age
four hundred and ninety-five should
be living then. What noteworthy
developments in the agriculture and
agricultural methods of the United
States will these men and women OF
sixty-five probably have witnessed
during the fifty years?
A great poet has said that che best
prophet of the future is the past
and the changes in American agri-
culture during the last half century
have been so wonderful that even
without giving free rein to ones
imagination it would not be difficult
to draw a picture Of the future that
would possess elements of romance,
and still seem to have some basis in
the achievements of our own time.
Before v~enturing, however, ever
upon what would appear to be the
most safe and reasonable of fore
casts, it would be we'll to look a lit
tie closely at the changes which have
occurred during the latter half of
the past century, in order to ascer-
tain how far the controlling condi-
tions were permanent, and how far,
accordingly, the past is really an in
dex to the future.
The fathers and mothers of to-day
have, within fifty years, seen a body
of land nearly ten times the size of
the six New England States pass
from the public domain to private
ownership. 1t has been converted
into farms, and the greater part of
it brought under cultivation. In the
same period the farms of the cOun-
try have doubled in number, and
their value has attained the prOdig-
iOus sum of sixty billions of dollars.
Horses, cattle and other farm ami
mails, the production of corn, wheat,
cotton and an infinite variety of other
products-au have increased at least
in corresponding proportions and
after providing for the manifold
needs of a population that has itself
more than trebled, we are exporting
to other countries agricultural prod
ucss to the value of nearly ii billion
dollars a year.
ADDITIONS TO THE PRODUCTIVE AREA.
But can we assume for the coming
half century an increase in agricul-
tural production corresponding to
that of the past? Can we even ex-
pect that In 1850 there will be pro.
duced as many bushels of grain TO
each inhabitant as were harvested
last year? If any n thing can be
said of the future with greater Ger
tainty than anything else, it is that
our agricultural production will
hereafter increase, not, as in the
past, by leaps and bounds, with the
throwing open to settlement of one
great portion of the country after
another, but by the more tedious and
costly processes of reclamation, ter
tilizatiOn, irrigation and adaptation.
Science will determine the geo
graphical distribution of the area Of
production, teaching the farmer
what products and what varieties OF
products are best adapted to his
farm science will direct him in ali
the operations of crop-raising, from
the selection of the seed to the mar
keting Of the product science VIII
restrict within moderate limits, if it
does not absolutely stop, the ravages
of fungOus diseases and the attacks
of injurious insects; science will
direct the dietary of all farm ami
mails, and almost revOlutionize the
production of meat, of wool, and of
dairy products science will come to
the farmers aid with l~abor-saving
machinery as yet undreamed of and
even the commonest operations of
the farm will be performed by cleo
tricity.
There will no longer be that IN
systematic distribution of the pro-
ductive area which has hitherto
been characteristic of American agri-
culture, and the explanation of which
&c FOuu6 in tho v-oS+ ov+oD4 IS 49,