New-York tribune., 1906-05-12
AN AGRTCULTURAL REHrHAL.

The desirability of maintaining prosperous
and intelligent rural population in this country
is generally recognized. The condition of the
nation would be neither politically nor ecOnOm-
ically sound if the population were so cOngested
in the cities as to destroy the reasonable bal
anCe of conservatism and radicalism, put our
government at the mercy Of the restless un-
rooted native and foreign elements which con-
gregate in industrial centres, and leave those
centres without the adequate agricultural back
ground on which their healthy life must depend.
There is much misplaced sorrow over the drift
from the farm. We want drift from the farm
In just the measure that the farm OverhOws with
men and women needed elsewhere But we also
want the farm to continue to develop strong
intelligent people and to hold its own as an
attractive field for a fair proportion Of them.
How 1t can be made to do this is the problem.
Some have thought to do it by rural free deliv-
cry, telephones and other appliances to make
the farmer cOntented with an approach to the
convenience of life in cities. The true solution
is not, however, palliatiOn. 1t does not consist
in making young men and women think they are
having good a time as people in the city, but
in making it possible for them to earn more
than they could in the city. Professor Knapp,
who has done so much TO convert the boil weevil
from a curse to a blessing in some Southern
States, put the point squarely in his address the
other day before the Southern Educational Con.
ference at Lexington, KY, when he said that
rural depopulatiOE would continue as long as
the mechanics productive power was five times
that of the farm labOrer.
There is the problem. The old fashioned
farmer may think the solution hopeless, but
Professor Knapp shows that it is perfectly easy
If our people will only wake up to the posi-
bllities of intelligent and progressive cultivation
of the soil. He declares that agriculture yields
each farm labOrer in Vermont SAT-, in Iowa
S1,OSS, in South Carolina STAT in North Caro-
lima Sl59 in Alabama $3.50. Only in Iowa is the
farm labOrer's productive power equal to that
of the mechanic, and that is not because OF
superior natural productiveness Of the soil-fOr,
in spite of its richness, great must be given
to drainage in IOwa-but because Of more intelli-
gent cultivation In Iowa there are four horses
to one man working on the farm; in South
Carolina one mule to every two workers The
IOwanS livestock is worth 81 PA and his farm
implements 1858. The Carolinian's livestock
is worth $134 and his implements $43. The
profit of farming is in the large crop secured
by the extra labor beyond what will produce an
average crop. 1t is the first bale of cotton or
the first twenty bushels of wheat to the acre
which COSTS just it is the first chair from the
factory Statistics show that with cotton at seven
cents the man who raises half bale actually
he pushes his crop from one to two bales, as he
can easily do by getting good seed and giving
good tillage The Iowa farmer puts five times
as much power on his plough as the CarOlinian,
and he gets, not five but eight times the result.
DIR. Knapp says that. with due allowance
for short crops and failures. the South can
make gain of 500 per cent in productiveness
lin the next ten years. What is true of the
South is true in only a less degree of the whole
country Good seed, more power and less hand
work, more thorough culture. more care to meet
markets in the selection of crops and the pack
ing of pTOdUcts-in short, the bringing to the
farm of the spirit and intelligence of the alert
manufacturer-wOuld at least double the re-
turns from farming, even in Ouc most advanced
states. Denmark in Europe and Canada on
this side of the water have set us an example
in revOlutionizing their agriculture and substi-
tuting prosperity for depression. We can do as
much, and the educational conferences and the
General Education Board can perform no more
worthy service than to promote campaign for
better farming in every state of the Union. 1t
would be an educational and patriotic, as we'll
as an economic. campaign. for fat land with
a wealthy agricultural population means an
intelligent community, able and willing to sup
port gOOd schools. conservative and faithful to
the duties of citizenship, because it has much
to lose from bad government. New York with
it's educational forces, should be leader in this
movement. 1t has too many half titled fields
and too many farmers who wonder if farming
is worth while. simply because they do not
really know how to farm.
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