The Greeley tribune., 1905-11-23

| S,,rnd in raseryoifs and every drop
Invotod 10 hcneficial use, Il use tlltt
viii he so valuable that its value ior
nayigation will count for -nntlius III
1 con, garrison. 1t may be Il great ul'p.
years before this will happen. Out IL
| is certain 10, come. IN no otuer wy
can the vast population win WHICH
this country Will teen Witu1h ivM
Imndred wears be provided with the
food to sustain il.
Japan. from her tot:ll area OF - -
fi5 sollIre miles. of which only lSVNu
lre cultivated collected an annual
revcnue before the war with kuSSfl
began of Sl2l. .i3S. 20. and her exports
amounted 10 loi..pS.a-.i.
The average population per square
mile of Japan is 299.i6, but only one
| seventh of her territory is actually
under cultivation.
A Thousand Miles Square.
A section of our own country CON
tained within Il square extending one
| thousand miles north from New Ut
leans and one thousand miles west
| from pittsburg, and containing one
million square miles, if rs denSeiy
populated as Japan, would sustain a
population of 300, 900. 600: but Il much
larger proportion of this great square
in the center of the United States
| could be Intensely farmcd than III
Japan. where only one-SeVenth OF the
total area is cultivated.
on the 10000 square miles of land
in Japan that is actually furmed. they
sustain 30,O00,GOO farmers. 1t Is Il
safe estimate that ut least one-half of
the thousand mile square central sec
ton of the UnIted StItes above des-
cribed could he 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 150,O00.0O0 of
farming population alone.
A population of over fifteen hundred
to the square mile sustained by agri-
culture seems to the ordinary mind in
credible: but on the Island of Jersey.
off the English coast n population of
over thirteen hundred to ,le square
mile is sustained by out of door agri-
culture in II 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 he
looked upon rs utterly chimerical by
the average reader.
Degcrcracy England.
Bear in mind however, again. that
they are based only upon the asSump-
ton that we in this country should at
tain to il 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 haifcentury 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 Il de-
gree that the degeneracy of her citi-
zenship now presents itself to the
statesmen of England as most ap-
palling problem.
We are doing the same thing. but
we are not, as yet, feeling the effec $
III it so severely because we have still
a 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 it 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 in our cities or in our fac
tories should quit their present en-
ployment and become farmers. All
that is necessary is that the facilities
for rapid transportation afforded by
orr trolley system should be availed
of to plant every factory family upon
ut 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 goat
The children of the family will have
fresh air and sunshine and 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 Handicraft.
Every child in the public schools.
boy or girl, must be trained from its
earliest days of school life to cult
vate the ground and make things
grow in 4 garden. and to raise -poul-
try, and do all that needs to be done
to provide the food for a family from
an acre OF land
Add to this Il training in simple
sloyd work and home handicraft.
cooking and sewing and making things
for the home. and you Wa. have ere
ated the impulse in the minds of the
multiplying millions of our children
which will lead them to shun the
bricks and the asphalt the slums and
the tenementS, as they would shnn
the plague, and flee from them far
enough into the country to have an
acre at least for Il home and q gar
den.
Create this impulse in the minds of
our Children, the millions upon mil
lions OF them who are attending, and
will attend, roirr public schools, and
they will lind Il way ito solve all the
rest of the problem. lhow to get the
land, and how to get back and forth
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