Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-10-09

half OF the state was gwen DE Governor
Charles S. Deneen. In opening his ad-
Idress Governor Deneen extended most
cordial welcome. and spoke of the inn
portance of the meeting to this state
and to the country at large. He made
a brief reference to the conditions at
the executive mansion, and the neces-
sity of a hurried preparation of his ad-
dress. Continuing. he spoke as fol-
llows:
Industry iS Important.
Before adverting TO the work which
the state and societies like yours have
accomplished and that which is in pro-
lcess of accomplishment. for the inn
provement of agriculture. it may be
well to illustrate the preeminent i'm
Iportance of that industry to our ma
tional prosperity
statistics show that during the last
five years our country has witnessed an
IeXpansion in production and commerce
Iunequaled. perhaps. in history. The vol
ume of business transacted. as shown
by the bank clearings during the past
fiscal year. was one hundred fifty bill
lions of dollars Never before in any
nation or in any age has the volume of
business exchanges of a country equal
ed one hundred billion dollars.
Advances Great.
''The chief factor contributing to this
enormous expansion of production and
exchange has been our agricultural in
dustries, which always have been, still
are. and will long remain the mainstay
past five years this has been notably
the case. That period has been mark
ed by phenomenal crops OF these our
principal crops, in the way of total
value. are corn. hay. cotton. wheat. and
oats. The total value of these crops
for the years 1S95-1900 was nine bill
lions of dollars: but for the years 1900 |
1905 their total value was Il billions of
dollars: an advance of more than So |
per cent
Application of business Methods.
How. then. shall we account for such |
an unprecedented advance? / believe
that it is measurabIy to be accounted |
for by reference to the application to |
the business of farming. of scientific |
methods. a knowledge of which has
been made possibly only by the united |
efforts of agricultural societies and 9TH
er agencies. in the promotion of investi- |
CATION and experiments for the purpose
of determining the best methods of til
lage, having in view the object of in
'creasing production and at the same
time conserving and if possible adding
to the fertility of the soil.
Profound Ignorance.
1t is only in recent years that the
need of conserving our soil vitality has
been recognized Indeed in the early
days of Illinois history. ignorance of
the character and relative value of the
various types of soil found within our
boundaries was universal and pro-
found. That this ignorance prevailed.
even within very recent times. is shown
by reference to the comments of "a
writer for the Peoples Cyclopedia of
Universal knowledge. published in 1881
(only % years ago., who describing
Illinois. saws:
Its surface is occupied almost en-
tirely by prairies. They are
covered with coarse kind of grass
which grows to enormous size.
lUGxIldlSTlDleI
summer range for cattle. From the
exceeding fiatness of some of the plains
the rains that fall frequently stagnate
and thus render the situation unhealthy.
The prairie is rich and fertile and sew
eral settlements have been located on
its border
Thought Land UninhabitabIe.
In the early SOS it was stated by
one who had travelled over the route
proposed for the building of the Illinois
Central railroad. that the line was tol
be built through a country that was not
only uninhabited. but uninhabitable.l
And as late as 1875 much of the land
In Champaign county. now one of our
most fertile farming regions, was un-
salaoie at the government price of one
dollar twenty-five cents per acre.
The chief reason for this condition.
OF affairs lay in the lack of drainage, a