Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-13

| Tells How Scientific Farming VIII
| Avert Losses In CrOps-The Acreage
Yield tn De Doubled In Ten Years.
With Care.
There will be no more crop failures
| confidently declares Secretary of Agri.
| culture Wilson, according to a special
dispatch from Washington to the New
York Times. Farming has become sci
entific, and Americans will not fear
starvation.
The secretary is anticipating only
normal conditions, such as the weather
experiences year after year, and does
not say that some great calamity in the
form of floods or a wide area of freeZ-
ing weather in July may not descend
upon the earth out of some remote cor
ner of the heavens. Reasonable condi-
tions. such as early and late frosts,
drought and prolonged rainy seasons.
torrid heat and hack of sunshine. grass
hoppers, rust and other pests and dis
eases, the secretary believes cannot
overcome the farmers.
There have been material improve
mcnts in agriculture during the present
decade" said Secretary Wilson. I'm
portant improvements have been made
il agricultural machinery which are OF
great advantage to the farmers. The
department of agriculture has by ex-
pcriments demonstrated what it is pos
sible to do ii preparing for climate
fluctuations II heat and moisture.
1T is not only possible. but it is
practical and is the general rule nova
he has to work and intelIisently select
the crops best adapted. The days Of
old, when the farmers would year
after year plant the same crops to
gather fairly remunerative harvest
under adverse conditions. were eXcep-
tionally good and to experience fail
ures under adverse conditions have
gone never to return.
1.-The farmers now make it their bust
ness TO know what their lands will do.
and they utilize them to the best ad-
vantage In 1910 the production per
acre will be twice as great rs il was
in 1900. This increase will be due en-
tircly to the advance which the farm
ers are making in the direction of Sc
lection of methods. The accomplish
ment of the department in its work
among the farmers ia bringing about
this result is of sufficient importance TO
warrant all the appropriations that
have been made during the last six
years for its maintenance.
But the work OF the department has
rot stopped with Increased acreage
r. Lo, tf
all over the world searching for crops
best adapted to conditions existing il
various sections of our wide eXpanse
of territory. They have brought us
crops which blossom in the deserts.
and now in the arid tracts in parts o.
the west crops are being produced
where 1t was thought only rattlesnakes
and lizards could thrive Irrigation is
doing much to make waste lands fer
tile. but any experienced farmer. given
an abundant water supply which he
can control. can produce good results.
What the agricultural department *
attempting is to overcome the natural
conditions. and I think much has. al
ready been done in this line. More will
be done
when l say there will be no more
crop failures l do not mean that every
seed each farmer plants Will thrive and
produce. We may, however. safely
count upon sufficient crops to supply
our own needs and leave surplus for
export
"a flood may visit some valley, and
acres of growing crops may be washed
away. Grasshoppers may and prob
IL, I'LL IT,. T.
Hot winds will blow. but we will not
hear so much of the grasshoppers and
the hot winds in the future The grass
hoppers will finG so much to eat that
they will not be noticed. and the hot
winds will find so much fresh and
green to blow against that they will
be checked and cooled.
The farmers nowadays go about
their work with cool deliberation and
knowledge of what they can accom-
plish. They select the seeds of the
crops which they know will produce
the best results upon the soil to be cul-
tivated. Certain varieties of corn or
wheat, for instance, require more heat
and moisture than others. Where the
growing seasons are usually dry and
hot the farmer will not plant the corr
which the farmer where more moisture
Is to be expected would use.
Farming is fast being reduced to
science, if it may not be said that Ii
has reached that stage already. Sci
entific methods now prevail. Deep
blowing, soil investigation, seed selec-
ton, improved machinery. all combine
to assure the farmers at harvest time
of fair reward for their foil and
outlay. There may and probably will
be poor crops in certain counties, and
will not say that the crops this year
will be as large as last year. but | re-
peat we will not have what can be