The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1903-11-06

railroad subjects can talk without notes.
because when / get started it is hard to
stop, but irrigation is subject as to
on i paper SO that I may not lead you or
myself astray. Agriculture is and will al
ways continue to be the greatest source
of wealth in the state of North Dakota.
The problem before your people is how
they may increase to the largest and full
est extent the agricultural possibility OF
their state and the wealth that will follow
from it. Agricultural production must
have as a basis a soil which will yield
its products in bountiful measure as the
reward for the toll of man.
North Dakota has been generously en-
dowed with such a soil, but its future
profitable cultivation demands that its
fertility should be maintained and in
creased by correct methods of agriculture
and fertilization. You cannot continue to
draw each year upon the sources of pro-
duction which are latent in the soil with
out replenishing them or returning to 1t
that which has been taken from it, any
more than you can draw forever from an
ishing the quantity stored therein. There
are many ways of fertilizing the soil in
order to increase and maintain its fertility
and one of the greatest fertilizers known Is
water. 1t Is this aspect of irrigation
which should have the closest considera-
ton by the people of North Dakota.
Throughout large portion of the state
and We are unwilling to adopt the idea
that North Dakota is an arid state.
Small Farms Advisable.
THE close and careful cultivation which
will yield the highest profit per acre to
the farm can be given to the land only
when it is cultivated in comparatively
small farms and for this reason in the
should never lose sight of the fact that
in proportion as the farms are subdivided
into comparatively small areas among a
mnlfitndQ fQrmarc hiQhQCf
prosperity come, not only to the farmers
of the state. but to her whole people.
The greater the number of prosperous
farms the greater will be the prosperity
Of every business man in the state. Ten
farmers, each cultivating 160 acres Of
land by the most approved methods, sup
plemented by irrigation, can earn a profit
from their farms equal in amount to that
which would be earned by the same num-
Der OF farmers filling many any times so the
methods of agriculture sometimes prac-
ticed in this state.
"And ten farmers. each with 100 acres
Of land, occupy no more Of the states
surface than one farmer would with ten
times as much land, and the ten farmers
m 81 Of trade w Sfh Se
merchants Of the state and its CONNER
cial prosperity.
1.-THE bonanza wheat farms Of the olden
times are destined to pass into smaller
holdings. 1t is as certain as fate that the
lands Of this state must and will be SUBJ
divided ana reSuDO1VlQeO until eaCn 1drm-
er has only as much land as will yield him
the highest reward for his labor and en-
able him to support in comfort and pros
perity the family which he has gathered
around his hearthStone. 1t is better that
it should be so. The farm life of the flu
ture Will have many advantages over the
isolation Of the old farm life, because the
will bring good roads, good schools, near
by neighbors, farm telephones, churches,
Libraries and social environment in com;
m w
be impossible in country where the
farms are of vast extent and the homes
far removed from each other.
Crops Should Be Diversified.
1--WE must never lose sight of the fact
that continued cropping to single crop
evitably reduce the annual product, of
the fat, black soil of the Red river, if
cropped through all the years to wheat,
will lose it's strength and the result will
farm. The remedy for this is the diver
sifcation of crops and the planting of
other products which will draw different
elements from the soil. There are many
such crops which could be raised on the
fertile lands of North Dakota today by a
closer system of cultivation which would
yield to the farmer a greater profit per
acre than the same lands ever yielded
when farmed to wheat.
And in the production of these varied
crops the fertilization of the land by irri-
cation is a most important factor. 1t
could not probably be done with profit
upon a large scale, but the farmer with
forty acres and water to irrigate could
make more money if he understood the
science of irrigation than could farmer
with $50 acres or even more land who
farmed it to single crop and trusted to
nature for his water supply to fertilize the
land.
yesterday or the day before I met
one of your most public spirited farmers
and he informed me that he rotated his
crops and that he did not keep after wheat.
wheat, wheat all the time. Now he would
that he did this year if he had followed
the non-rotation system. You always
want to investigate for the system that
when you find it follow it.
1.-The statements which have made
with reference to the increased production
resulting from irrigation even though it
merely semi-arid region, are not mere
surmise. They. are based upon actual
and nd In
Congress at Phoenix, Ariz.. on Dec. 16,
1896, DR.. Clarke Gapen said: There is
no part of the earth's surface where the
rainfall is so exactly proportional that it
may not be profitably supplemented by
the application of water artifcally to any
given crop. That is to say, there is no
crop that may not be increased in guam
tity or improved in quality by this MEANS
Mr.. Hill cited additional statistics to
bring out the entire irrigation question in
of the inestimable benefits that follow the
reclamation of arid or semi-arid land.
I'VE have not as yet the exact fnfor-
nation necessary to be certain just what
lands in this state could be irrigated
through the construction of large canals
and irrigation systems by the national
government. but it is safe to assume that
the area is very large. 1t is estimated
by the officials of the national government
who are familiar with the physical condi-
tions of the state that at least a million
acres in North Dakota could be furnished
with water for irrigation at an average
cost of SIS per acre. That is the estimate
of the government officials. My own judg
ment Is that $40 honestly expended will
ut is beyond question If this land were
thus made irrigable that its value would
be increased beyond the cost of SIS an
acre after the construction of irrigation
works. If the, government built tn,
government it's entire investment in an
nual installments extending over period
of ten years as contemplated by the ma
tional irrigation act The increased pro-
duction from this million acres of land
would add enormously to the wealth of
the state. The original expenditure of the
fund disbursed for construction would
stimulate every branch of trade and in
dustry in the state and the annual acre
closely cultivated by the intensive methods
which necessarily must go hand in hand
with irrigation might safely be estimated
at from $50 to $50 per acre, or a total of
$50, 100000 to $50,000.000 year added to
the resources and annual income of the
people of North Dakota from the prod
ucts of these irrigated lands.