Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-12-14

4 tention to te value of small holding
k tention tothe value of small holding
e of real estate for farm purposes.
n The wonderful success of the Japan
/, ese army has drawn public notice t,
n the fact that the people Of that coun
|. TRY live on very small patches of land
j their limited fertile area supporting
j dense population, yet manifestly build
. ing up high class men both as to physi
e cal strength and mental endowments.
: Discussion of the irrigation problem
, in our country has simultaneously
pointed a way to the profitable occu
patton Of land, especially of that
which has been artifcially irrigated,
in smaller holdings than has heretofore
been deemed practicable.
The Sentry believes that public opin.
ion will rapidly concentrate in favor
of small farms and thorough cultiva.
tion, so as to sustain any measures cal
culated to bring about those desirable
objects.
Modern intensive farming has shown
its benefits in many American commu-
mites, confirming the lessons that are
seemingly taught by what we learn in
regard to the japanese. Irrigation has
been shown to afford positive protec-
tion against loss of crops, thus leading
to an easier solution of the problem
how to get the people back to the soil.
One great mistake made by farmers
is that they do not study their profes-
sions as do lawyers, doctors or mer
chants. Daniel Webster said that it
required greater talent and better
judgment to be a good farmer than to
be great statesman. No occupation
is subject to a greater variety of modi-
flying influences, and few, if any, de-
mand wider range of knowledge than
that of agriculture.
But when it is prosecuted on small |
scale, with only few products and
with simple methods the requirements
as to knowledge and skill, especially
in the beginning, are less exacting.
Nor is it now necessary for men to
search the outskirts of civilization to
find land where they may secure q
living. Small tracts of from one to
five acres may be had on easy terms
almost everywhere, even in the sub
urbs of large cities. Thus the solution
of farm life is avoided, and when there
are 40 or so families instead of one on
$50 acres, cooperation makes building,
as well as the procurement of tools, ami
mails and machinery much easier.
1t is also much easier to combine
work on the land with employment in
the shop OK store to the great advan-
tage of the worker. One advocate of
the small holding recently said that if
II man who now works eight hours a
day at the forge Or the smelter or the 8
lathe would work four hours day '
there and four hours day on his own q
acre of irrigated or fertile land, he
would double his income, and thus in i
sure his family against want when the {
laily wage should cease.
There has long been tendency I
among economists to advise the work r
ng classes to "get back to the soil" 6
As rapidly as possible, neutralizing the t
concentration in cities, which has been c
such an alarming development of the a
asst three or four decades When that c
was supposed to mean that d
very worker must, by some means,
secure control over so or 160 acres of Nv
and, the difficulties seemed insur- I
But if can be shown to t
he people thus counselled that they fl
nay be comfortably supported and may
wen accumulate property on tract of
.hree, five or ten acres, the problem
will seem much easier of solution.
Great Britain is one of the very best [
cultivated countries in the world. The
British farms are much smaller than u
hose in America, but not even yet so o
mall as in exceptional cases have been lp
'N"" ." WIS NNNhNAg W '
When the time shall arrive that "a S
per cent of the land in the United a
States, as in Great Britain, shall be b
lsefully employed, with farms sub-di, 4
'ided TO the minimum limit Of praeti- r
able tillage, the density of the popu- o
alton and the prosperity of the people "
will probably have reached high water "
mark unless other conditions shall have N
adieally changed. Il
There is no other calling for the N
'ursuit of which so many helps are $,
reely offered as for that of the tiller $,
( the soil in this country, whether he b
q a gardener or farmer. The irri, a
alton project is rapidly Transforming ii
{ government expense wide areas of o.
esert lands into fields of matehless Ia,