The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1905-11-17

AdAAC6 Will DC AGu Out NnTOuGn ntl
E work Of canalsA large and small, ano
stored In reservoirs, and every droI
devoted to beneficial use, use thai
will be so valuable that its value for
! navigation will ,count for nothing IN
comparison. 1t may be a great many
! years before this will happen, but Il
Z Is certain TO come. In no other way
can the vast population with which
this country will TEEN within a few
hundred years be provided with the
food to sustain IT.
Japan, from her total area of 147,-
655 square miles, of which only $4,000
are cultivated, collected an annual
revenue before the war with Russia
began Of $121, 433, 725, and her exports
amounted to $124,20g, 923.
The average population per square
mile of Japan is 209.16, but only one
seventh of her territory is actually
under cultivation.
A Thousand Miles Square.
A section of our own country con-
tanned within a square extending one
thousand miles north from New Or
leans and one thousand miles west
from Pittsburg, and containing one
million square miles, IL as densely
populated as Japan, would sustain a
population of 300000,000; but a much
larger proportion OF this great square
in the center Of the United States
could be intensely farmed than in
Japan, where only one-seyenth of the
total area is cultivated.
On the 10000 square miles of land
in Japan that is actually farmed, they
sustain 100000 farmers. 1t is a
safe estimate that at least One-haIf of
| the thousand mile square central sec
ton of the UnlTed States above des-
| cribed could be as closely cultivated
as the productive fields of japan.
Those japanese fields sustain over
fifteen hundred people to the square
mile. At the same ratio of population.
our own thousand mile square central
section would sustain 750,000,O00 of
farming population alone.
A population of over fifteen hundred
to the square mile sustained by agri- |
l culture seems to the ordinary mind In |
credible; but Oh the Island Of Jersey, |
off the English coast, a popuIafan. Of |
over thirteen hundred to me square
mile is sustained by out of door agri.
culture in a climate by no means best
adapted to intensive farming.
1t must be borne in mind that we are
talking now of the possibilities of |
future development, and the facts and |
figures above given will no doubt be
looked upon as utterly chimerical by |
the average reader.
Degeneracy In England.
Bear in mind however, again, that
they are based only upon the assump- |
ton that we in this country should at |
tain to point of development already /
reached by the Japanese people, and
on which rests their national strength.
1t Is true that our development dur
ing the last half-century has not been
towards the land We have followed
In the footsteps of England, rather
than Japan; and while, in fifty years.
Japan has restored the land to her
people and rooted them to the soil in
homes of their own, England has
done the contrary. She has driven
her yeomanry from the farms to the
cities, where they have become fac
tory operatives, and degenerated
physically and mentally to such a de-
gree that the degeneracy of her citi-
zenship now presents itself to the
statesmen of England as a most ap-
palling problem.
We are doing the same thing, but
we are not as yet, feeling the effects
of 1t so severely because we have still
larger proportion of our people on
the land.
Back to the Land.
We have much to do to reverse the
tide of population, and turn 1t from
the cities back to the land-frOm the
tenement to the garden. 1t must not
be imagined that it is necessary, in
order to accomplish this, that the
workers 10 our cities or in our fac
81 Yrff |
ployment and become farmers. All
that is necessary is that the facilities
for rapid transportation afforded by
our trolley system should be availed
OF to plant every factory family upon
at least an acre of land.
Let that be done, and the problem
Is practically solved no matter
though the acre be used for nothing
but to raise chickens and keep a goat
The children of the family will have
fresh air and sunshine aud pure milk,
and will grow up to be healthy men
and women.
The lever with which we must
move our population back to the land
must be the public school system.
Gardens and fIandicraft.
Every child in the public schools,
obJ VI gill luuHb OC lIdlutQ lIQAl It's
earliest days of school life to cult
vate the ground and make things
grow in a garden, and to raise poul-
-ry, and do all that needs to be done
70 provide the food for a family from
IN acre Of land.
Add to this a training In simple
sloyd work and home handicraft,
cooking and sewing and making things
or the home. and you Wa have Gre
tied the impulse In the minds OF the
millions of our children
which will lead them to shun the
tricks and the asphalt, the slums and
he tenements, as they would shun
he plague, and fee from them far
'nough Into the country to have an
Icre at least for home and a gar
len.
Create this impulse In the minds Of
,ur children, the millions upon mill
ions Of them who are attending, and
viii attend, our public schools, aud
hey will fHd way to solve all the
est Of the problem. how to get the 4
and, and how to get back and forth 1
o 1t, If they continue to work in tie
.ity or the factory.
Some will say that school gardens
.annot be provided for city children
That Is mistake The only diff /