Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1904-10-26

SuOulu uOI US loyal W Cu0EI nominees.
The republican administration in this
county have been good in the past, and
that is a good guaranty for the future.
| ACRE FARMS AS A CURE FOR
CONGESTION.
A favorite topic with George H. Max
| we'll, the champion of irrigation and
the small farm, is the possibilities ly-
ing in an acre of ground-an intensive
ly cultivated acre, especially an irri-
gated acre-as a means of counterfeit
ing the pernicious tendency of popula-
ton to congestion in our great cities.
And it is theme which may we'll en-
gage the thoughts of all citizens we'll
engage the thoughts of all citizens
who witness the evils of such conges-
ton and would see them lessened, says
the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
The getting back to the soil''-of
which we have heard so much during
the decades since the alarm was sound
ed of over-concentration I'M our cities
| has usually meant the getting of a
farm of from 10 to 100 acres, generally
| obtainable only on the distant from
tiers Of civilization, and involving,
when accomplished, an amount of iso-
| lation-owing to the taking up of
large tracts by individuals and y the
consequent wide separation Of dwell
ings-which has operated as strong
deterrent. And even where city work
ingmen and their families were willing
to face such isolation in order to Sc
cure home, it has been too often
the case that the means of transporta-
ton to far-away land, for building a
house thereon and procuring the nee
essary animals and tools, have been
deficient or entirely lacking.
But modern intensive farming has
made such revelations, in our own
American communities, as to the pos
sible productiveness of a single acre
and these revelations have been so re-
inforced by what we now know of
farming in Japan, where large families
are supported by the cultivation OF
tracts of that size and even smaller
while Irrigation is shown to afford
positive protection against loss of
crops, that an entirely new face is
put upon this problem of ''getting back
to the SOIL"
In the first place it is no longer
necessary that man should seek the
outskirts Of civilization in order to
find land on which to make a living.
Acre tracts are to be had on easy terms
almost anywhere in the union, even in
the neighborhood of the great cities.
Then the isolation of farm life be-
comes thing Of the past when there
is family to every acre instead of
a family to- every 80 or 100 acres or
more. Cooperation makes house
building, and the procurement of the
use Of tools, animals and machinery,
infinitely easier. It becomes easy,
also, to combine work in the city shop
and work on the farm, to the infinite
advantage Of the worker. Mr.. Max
we'll declared, in speech at Great
Falls, Mont. few days ago, that "if
every man who now works eight hours
a day at the smelter could work four
hours day on his own acre of irrigat-
ed land, he would double his income
and he would insure himself, his wife
and his children against want when
the days wage should STOP"
With some change in the hours,
the same remark might be addressed
to every workingman in the Twin
Cities, in Chicago and elsewhere.
Steam and trolley cars give more and
more ready access to available acres.
The irrigation of single acre, where
necessary on account of deficient
rains, can be easily accomplished, in
the absence OF government works, by
means inapplicable to large farms, but
readily availed on small one. In
states where the natural rainfall usual
ly sufices for ordinary crops, it is
shown that these may be largely in.
creased by occasional irrigation, and
Ensured" by having the means OF irri.
cation at hand incase Of drouth. .5
i It may be objected that intensive
4 farming, under which alone an acre
can be made to support family, Is
4 the highest attainment Of agricultural
| skill that farming is a trade which
j must be learned BY long experience,
/ and that the ordinary city workman ID
q not qualified to obtain the results an.
I ticipated BY. MI. Maxwell when he
j urges him to Get al acre and live on
3 IT. and live from Il II But when even
4 little children can make money BY
cnltivating i little corner III q city