Warren sheaf., 1903-07-02
FLOOD LESSONS.

a AdISS SeCtlO0 OF the m1QQlo west
has been this season visited by foods
Of greater magnitude than have been
known for sixty years. The resulting
loss Of life has been great and the de-
struction Of property almost immeas-
urable. Some facts, which in general
way have been known, yet but little
needed, have been terribly emphasized
as result of these foods. One of
them is that the settlement and Inn
provement Of country tend to a
quick release of excessive rainfall, the
universal system Of draining, tiling and
dltchlng incident to the reclamation of
all wet lands insuring the rapid move
ment Of the water to the streams and
rivers, these augmenung the flood in
the seagoing streams with cumula-
tive effect. Another fact which has
been made very plain Is that the gen
eral effect of mans work on the coun-
try has bHen in the way of narrowing
the original waterways and obstruct-
ing the natural outlets for food waters.
This has been brought about by the
desire of municipalities and railways to
curtail as much as possible the length
Of their bridges and the filling up Of
ancient ravines to secure valuable
building sites, it being shown that a
western city, one of the worst sufferers
by the late food, had actually narrow
ed the main channel of the river which
passed through it $50 feet in the man.
ner above indicated, besides having
filled up and obliterated numerous
gulches and bayous on the one time
river bottom which were the safety
valves for the food seasons Of fifty
years ago: Another fact developed, and
one which more particularly concerns
the farmer, is that his lowlands, the
marsh and; bog Of the pioneer days,
which Of late years he has broken up
and cropped and not tile drained, are
now we'll under way back to the prime
val bog conditions and will remain un-
profitable land for him until he can
either get it seeded down or properly
underdrained. The last lesson Is that
there Is no visible or permanent change
in progress of climatic conditions.
These remain as they always have
been, cycles or periods with marked
tendency toward extreme heat, cold,
drought or flood following each other
with a certain fxity Of purpose, but
according to no regular known peri
odicity. The high water marks of 1908
will furnish plenty of material for fu-
ture thought and study.
BETTER WORK ON FEWER ACRES.
Said n friend to us the other day,
would you have a man, when he has
got his farm paid for, just settle down
to the humdrum life of working it and
not try to acquire more land and more
propertyY Our answer to this is that
the great problem of living is to find
out how to get the most out of life.
When the average farmer finds him.
self the owner Of 100 acres Of good
land and is out of debt he is in posi-
ton to not only enjoy life, but be Of
some use to his family and the CON-
munity in which he lives. His labor in
the care Of his farm need be in no
sense monotonous thing, but he will
find the way open for all the enter
prise, ambition and the intelligent do
ing Of better things that he could de-
sire. It Is unfortunate that so many
men rate success in farming to consist
of the getting and owning Of more and
more acres rather than In an intelh-
gent comprehension of the soil and it's
fr Nm %
man may find a hundred ways for
growth in the line Of his profession-in
better methods Of soil culture, in i'm
proved stock. in new crops, in lines, Of
intensive agriculture whereby he may
double the crop product Of his farm.
Nothing is truer today than that the
average farmer needs not SO much
more land as he does the knowledge
and ability to better care for that
which he already has.
POOR FARMING. &, i
To one used to the broad lines upon
which western agricultural operations
are conducted-rows Of corn half a mile
long, work all done with horse and
machine there was something almost
pathetic in seeing the men who try to
farm among the hills of Virginia and
Pennsylvania, prepare the land and
plant a field Of corn. The field, like
enough, was some irregular, narrow
two acre strip bordering some stream,
the seed was dropped and covered by
hand, a third hand. dropping handful
Of plaster in each hill, and all this
when it required much faith to believe
that the stalks of last years crop could
have produced over fifteen bushels per
acre. In one small field containing less
than two acres we saw the man, his