The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-09-19
WESTERN FRUIT
SURPRISES FASTENERS
An Old Utahn Talks Entertain
ingly of Farming East
and West.

Mr., James Dryden of the Experiment
station at Logan was in the city yes
terday, having recently returned to
Logan from Buffalo, n. Y, where he
was engaged in establishing and man
aging large poultry and fruit farm,
having served that institution for
twelve years. He was induced TO re-
turn to his old position by the superior
opportunities offered at the college for
experimental work,
Before coming West Mr.. Dryden
made an extensive trip in the New
England States, and from study of
agricultural conditions there, which are
prosperous probably as never before, he
is free to confess that Utah in many
ways offers superior agricultural advan-
tages to the Eastern States cit is true
that the farmers Of tho East have been
making great progress during the past
twenty years. They have been build
ing comfortable homes, and In the bet.
ter agricultural districts the farmers
home is often Of tho most modern type.
The farms are better cultivated than
they were. Country roads are greatly
improved, but with tho same kind of
cultivation and care the soil in this
region is more productive than the
average Eastern farm. The farmers
there find that to make ends meet and
pay interest on their investment they
must economize.
"The markets in Utah will compare
favorably with those of the best east
ern markets In the matter of dairy
and poultry products the markets are
fully equal, if not better here, than in
the East, and these may be produced
at much less cost here than there.
In the way of fruit Utah is an eye
opener. Why, when the trains como
into the Colorado and Utah valleys the
sight of the fruit trees loaded with
tourists, and when they taste the flavor
Of the Utah peaches a mild sensation
is produced. This State has a veritable
gold mine in her peach soils and peach
climate
Feeding the Soil.
zone thing that strikes the student
Of agriculture is that the farmers OF
the East-that is, the good farmers
have mastered the problem of soil ex-
haustion. One farm in particular that
] visited produced crop Of wheat this
year of forty bushels per acre Twenty
years ago the neighbors said that that
farm was about "run OUT / remem-
Der it well, But the farm is producing
better than it did twenty years ago.
and the only thing that saved 1t was
clover, cultivation and live stock 1t
is not very long ago that the farmers
looked upon il as inevitable that the
soil fertility would become exhausted,
and wondered what would happen when
that time came. Now no one in his
right mind fears such contingency 1t
is a question of give and take The
farmer has learned by dear experience
that he must give to the soil if he must
take from it.
"a great deal OF this result has been
brought about by the book farmer, the
reading farmer, backed by the expert
ment station worker. These men have
been preaching this doctrine for years,
and they have often been laughed at
for their pains. And this Improvement
must go on We are not yet getting
from the soil all that il is capable Of
giving The possibilities Of the soil are
illimitable. If it were not SO, at the
rate the population OF the country is
increasing the nation would soou reach
the limit Of its growth. AS soon as the
country can no longer furnish the food
necessary for the toiling millions of
the cities the Nation must look to other
lands for its food supply or face the
problem Of national decline, The cities
and their toiling millions are more vi
tally interested in the question of soil
fertilizer or soil exhaustion than are
the farmers themselves -