The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-04-06
TALKS OF THE YEAR 1910
Irrigation Is Now Doing Much to Make
the Waste Lands Great
Producers.

is confidently made by Secretary VIII
son, who knows more about agriculture
than any other man in public life. The
secretary is anticipating only normal
conditions, such as the weather expert
enced year after year, and does not say
that some great calamity in the form of
floods or a wide area Of freezing wealth
er in July may not descend upon the
earth out of some remote corner of the
heavens.
Early and late frosts, drought and
prolonged rainy seasons. torrid heat and
lack of sunshine, grasshoppers, rust and
other pests and diseases are considered
| by the secretary as conditions which
the farmers must guard against to in
sure crops.
"There have been material improve
ments in agriculture during the present
decade" said Secretary Wilson. "Im-
portant improvements have been made
in agricultural machinery, which are of
great advantage to the farmers. The
department of agriculture has, by eX-
periments, demonstrated what is posi-
bic to do in preparing for climatic fiuct-
made a study of the soils of incalcula
BILE benefit to the tillers.
at is not only possible, but it is
practical and is the general rule now
adays, for the farmer to study the soil
he has to work, and intelligently select
the crops best adapted. The days of
old, when the farmers, year after year,
would plant the same crops to gather
a rather remunerative harvest when
conditions were exceptionally good and
to experience failures under adverse
conditions, have gone, never to return.
The farmers now make it their business
to know what their lands will do, and
they utilize them to the best possible
advantage.
GIN 1910 the production per acre will
be twice as great as it was in 1900. This
increase will be due entirely to the ad-
vance which the farmers are making in
the direction of selection and methods
The work of the department among the
farmers in bringing about this result is
of sufficient Importance to warrant all
tho that boyo boon ,,,o 4 n
during the last six years for it's main
| tenance.
''But the work of the department has
not stopped with increased acreage pro-
duction. Agents have been at work all
over the world searching for crops best
adapted to conditions existing in various
sections of our wide expance of terri
tory. They have brought us crops
which blossom in the deserts, and now
in the arid tracts in parts of the west
crops are being produced where it was
thought only rattlesnakes and lizards
could thrive.
Irrigation is doing much to make
waste lands fertile, but any experienced
farmer given an abundant water sup
| ply, which he can control, can produce
good results. What the agricultural
department is attempting is to over
| come the natural conditions and | think
much has already been done i'm this
line. More will be done.
"When l say there will be no more
crop failures, 1 do not mean that ev-
cry seed every farmer plants will thrive
and produce" explained the secretary.
"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 probably will,
again appear in Kansas. Hot winds will
blow, but we will not hear so much of
the grasshoppers and hot winds in the
| future.
"The grasshoppers will find so much
to eat that they will not be noticed
and hot winds will find so much fresh
and green to blow against that they
will be checked and cooled.
Speaking seriously, however, the
farmers nowadays 60 about their work
with cool deliberation and knowledge
of what they can accomplish. They Sc
lect the seeds and the crops they know
will produce the best results upon the
soil to be cultivated
Certain varieties of corn and wheat.
for instance, require more heat and
moisture than others. Where the grow.
ing seasons are usually dry and hot the
farmer will not plant the corn 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 it has
reached that stage. already. Scientific
methods now widely prevail Deep
blowing, soil investigation, seed selec-
ton, improved machinery, all combine