Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1907-08-02
ABANDONED FARMS.

ed farms of New England and have
had various diagnosis of the causes,
ranging from the sterility of soil,
through the destructive competition of
western cheap farms down to or up to
the protective tariff that lured men
from farms to factories with the bet
ter, law made profits of the latter. Now
the note becomes more serious and
significant. New York is beginning to
take notice of its abandoned farms,
1900 of them, the New York Tribune
says, capable of caring for a popula-
ton of 250,00O, abandoned to weeds,
gives ii mo little ehagrin and amaze
ment.' In twenty-five years, it says,
Farm lands in this state have fallen of
S170,000.0O in value. And this, will
some of our contemporaries make note
was under the highest protection
the country has ever had. But that
is another story.
simultaneously there comes out of
this northwest an ominous note. Thos.
Shaw, for years aprofessor in Mime
sofas agricultural college and whose
fame is not limited by the borders of
his state, says that the fertility of this
northwest is a curse, not in itself but
in its effect of producing a decay in
industry. This decay he finds ample
evidence of everywhere. 1T is seen
in the foul conditions of the farms.
The wild stretches of fertile fields are
abloom with wild mustard. They are
prolific in penny cress, Canadian this
ties, the sow thistle and rag weed"
1t results from continuous grain grow
ing, made possible by the soils fertil-
ity.
1T is seenin the waning crop yield"
In the Red River Valley where TWEEN
ty FIVE years ago wheat yielded forty
bushels to the acre and farmers boast
ed the inexaustible fertility of the
land the crop averages barely fifteen
bushels. During all these years they
have been mining nitro0en, phospho-
ric acid and potash and sending it
to other lands in the grain sold. What
was not sent away was burned in the
soil, yet the farmers are wondering
why they can get but fifteen bushels
per acre, and why the grade is low"
says Mr.. Shaw. At this rate of dea
how long will it be before this
west will be having its abandoned
farms2
Then here is VIM. Stull, of Omaha,
banker and farmer saying that "the
average farmer in the corn belt, after
allowing 3 per cent. on his investment
has not made 60 cents a day Of ten
hours on an average during the last
decade" If he console himself that
though his debt grow faster than the
value of his personal property, his
land has advanced in value and he is
doing very well, Mr., Stull says, let a
crop failure come or a big drop in
farm prices and she will see the in
creased value Of his farm fade away in
a night and he will realize that its
value depends entirely on its produc-
tive capacity" Two auses he gives,
discriminating rail freights and the
scarcity of labor. Because of the lat
ter enough good wheat and corn goes
back into the ground after it is ready
for the harvest to feed all the needy
poor of the great cities" How accur-
ate Mr.. Stull is we cannot say, but
one can see all around us the condi-
tions Professor Shaw finds in the
northwest, weed eating out fertility,
food products wasted and the factors
of soil fertility sent abroad with no
recuperative returns of fertilizers. Is
even this fertile region not paving the
way for abandoned farms2-Sioux