The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-09-01

| VI IhO ihquhJ Why
agriculture has prospered, during the
years of this country's phenomenal
industrial and commercial develop
ment, whereas, British agriculture has,
during the same decades steadily de-
clined, the writer cited finds an I'M
portant cause of such disparity in the
different systems of land ownership
which prevail in the two countries.
The divergence began nearly century
ago, when the German governmental
system enabled the peasants to &C
uuire title to their land, by payments
extended over a series of years. In
| 1895 there were in Germany 5, 55S,317
holdings of land, the average size OF
which was about Is acres. OF these,
not less than 3,236,367 were owned
by different individuals, and averaged
less than acres in extent. Such
system of ownership not only favors,
but actually compels, careful, intensive
cultivation in order that the peasant
proprietor may derive the utmost pos
sible product from his land.
During the past twenty years, Ger
MANY. nOtWithstand'n the rapid de-
velopment of all manufacturing indus
tries, has largely increased her crops
of grains, vegetables, fruits, and like
wise of clover and hay, although the
net area of grass lands has actually
been reduced by 33 per cent, through
meadows and pastures being plowed
up and devoted to other forms OF Gull
tiyatiOn. Notwithstanding this I'M
portant reduction of the grass area,
the numbers of all kinds OF domestic
animals, except sheep-which play put
small and unimportant role In this
country-have largely increased, re-
suit which has been made possible by
the enhanced productiveness or
meadows and pastures through fer
tiliZing and better care, and by feed
ing with cut feed, roots, and cut forage
plants, in barns, and stables. stock
which formerly grazed in the fields.
Summing up the whole result, 1t
can be said that the comparative sue
cess of German agriculture demon
strates the economic efficiency of the
peasant farmer, who works has own
land in tract sufficiently limited to
enable or rather compel him to Gull
tivate it with intelligent economy ana
persistent industry Instead or the
tenant system, which, as has been
shown in some other European coun-
tries. means the gradual decadence OF
agriculture, the German system OF
education, government stations, and
scientific advice in soil analysis, fer
tiliZation rotation of crops, and i'm
provement of seeds, has gone far to-
ward enabling the empire to meet the
demands of a steadily growing popula-
,,n6y11u CjnO the i'm
portation of food materials. The lib
eral expenditure for agricultural edu-
cation and official aids to husbandry,
have been thus repaid over and over
again. In Prussia alone, there are
nine agricultural schools, and the an
nual expenditure made in teaching ag-
riculture amounts to large sum.
Sustained, directed, and encouraged
by such influences, the farmers OF the
Fatherland are organized into more
than $4,000 cooperative societies, and
the hit or miss cultivation of thirty or
forty years ago has been largely re-
placed by scientific, intelligent and pro
ductive methods.
In the United States the area OF land
for the farmer is yet so vast that
methods such as the above do not hnd
much favor here, but as time goes on
and as the lands are taken up, the
need of more intensive farming will
become apparent. Especially is this
the case with the farms in the older
eastern states where the lands have
in many cases become worn out by
too extravagant a use of them without
the return to them of sufficient fer
tilizing elements. The principle OF
intensive agriculture is made more
manifest in the irrigated sections OF
the West than is the case on the
farms of the East, and it is fair to
surrniSe that the productive quality