The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-09-03

of a magic lamp, some sixty million
acres would be added to the arabic
national domain. And II only forty
acres of this were assigned to each
family, it would supply the needs of
the actual addition to population, by
natural increases and by immigration,
for less than three years.
Certain it is that the time has come
for setting our household In order.
and creating a serious study of nation
al activity and economy according to
truer insight and more rational
mood
The first step is to realize our de-
pendence upon the cultivation of the
soil. The next will be to concentrate
popular interest and invention and
hone upon that neglected occupation.
We are still clinging to the skirts OF
a civilization born of great cities. We
at this very moment use slang which
calls the stupid man "a farmer.
Genius has Stunned the farm and en-
pended itself upon mechanical appii-
ances and commerce and the manifold
activities whose favorable reactions
filter back slowly to the plot of ground
mon which stand solidly the real mas
ter of himself and of his destiny. II
we comprehend our problem Alright, all
this will change; and larger compre-
hension of agriculture as our main
resource and our most dignifi.ed and
independent occupation. will for the
future direct to their just aim. i'll the
Improvement of methods and the in
crease of our yield the wisdom and
the science and the willing labor OF
the millions who thus may transmit to
posterity an unimpaired Inheritance.
Agriculture, in the most intelligent
meaning of the term is something al
most unknown in the United States.
We have a light scratching OF the soil
and the gathering Of all that 1t can
be made to yield, by the most rapidly
exhaustive methods. In manufactures
we have to consider small economies
so carefully that the difference of
fraction of a cent. the utilization of a
by-product of something formerly con-
signed to the scrap heap, makes the
difference between profit and bank
ruptcy. In farming, We are satisfied
with a small yield at the expense OF
the most rapid soil deterioration.
When we have added to the national
export trade half billion dollars per
annum, the country rings with self
Generalization and we demand the
plaudits of the world. If process
for extracting metallic wealth from
rocks were to be discovered tomorrow.
such as to assure the country an ad-
ded volume of a billion dollars in
wealth every year. the nation would
talk of nothing else. Yet these things
would be but trifle when compared
with the possibilities Of agricultural
development in the United States The
official estimated value of all farm
products of the country last year was
$6,415, ZOO, 900. Discount this for high
prices and generally favorable con-
ditions by twenty per cent, and over
$4,000, 900 900 remains. 1t is also Of
ficially recorded that of the appro-
priated farm area of the United States,
a little less tina none-half Is under
cultivation. Utilize the other half and,
without any change whatever in meth
cd. the output would be practically
doubled. Change methods only lit
tie, not to high class intensive farm
ing, but to an agriculture as far adj
vanced as that of those other cOun-
tries which have made the most pro-
gress, and without any addition what
ever to the existing cultivated farm
area, the prodct per acre would be
doubled. We should be able, by direct
ing surplus population to the land,
and by the adoption of system of
culture in full operation elsewhere.