The Delta independent., 1907-03-07

we may draw upon the future and
know that it will not be dishonored.
Here is the occupation in which the
millions of the future may find happy
and contented lot.
POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE.
When we have added to the national
export trade half billion dollars per
annum, the country rings with self
congratulation 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 added vol
ume of billion dollars in wealth every
year, the nation would talk of nothing
else. Yet these things would be but a
trife when compared with the possbi-
tiles of agricultural development in the
United States. The official estimated
value Of all farm products of the coun-
try last yea. was s6.4l5, 900, $50. Dis
count this for high prices and generally
favorable conditions by twenty per
cent. and over IS. 900, 600. 900 remains.
1t is also officially recorded that OF the
appropriated farm area of the United
States, a little less than one-half is
under cultivation. Utilize the other
half and. without any change whatever
in methods, the output would be prac-
tically doubled. Change methods only
little. not to high class intensive farm
ing. but to an agriculture as far ad-
vanced as that of those other countries
which have made the most progress.
and without any addition whatever to
the existing cultivated farm area, the
product per acre would be doubled. We
should be able, by directing surplus
population to the land. and by the
adoption of system of culture in full
operation elsewhere. greatly to increase
this minimum present yield of 5000
900. 900 per annum on farm products.
That is, We may add $40. 900. 900. 900 or
Sis. 600, 900. 900 every year to the national
wealth if we SO choose. And this is
but beginning.
RESULTS IN ENGLAND.
1t will be well, in defense of a pros
pect so promising. to glance at the
achievements of other peoples upon
whom necessity has already imposed
wisdom. 1t is. perhaps, not as gener-
ally known as it should be that Great
Britain. with soil and climate far
inferior to our own for wheat growing.
produces more than double the quantity
that we do per acre. The average for
the United States in 1899 was twelve
and three-tenths bushels per acre. In
1904 it was twelve and tive-tenths.
That is about the figure for long series
of years. More than half century
ago the average yield in England had
risen above twenty-SiN bushels to the
acre. In the latter part of the eigh-
teenth century agriculture had reached
| almost its lowest estate in the United
Kingdom. Men who saw then as we
should see now the paramount impor-
tance of its restoration devoted them
selves to its advancement. Arthur
Young made the most complete study
of local conditions ever attempted.
Statesmen We're interested and men of
science enlisted. A board of agriculture
was created in 1898. Sir Humphry
Davy delivered before it in 1872 a series
of remarkable lectures on scientific
agriculture. Landed proprietors took
up the cry. interest was evoked every
where, new theories were put into
practice almost as rapidly as the COM
mons were inclosed. and between l77O
and 1850 there was an immense rise in
production. in laborers' wages and in
rents. Although agriculture in England
has suffered in the last twenty-five
years. by the opening of new land in
America and the cheapening OF the
worlds transportation. it has profted
by further advances in knowledge.
To-day ayield of thirty bushels of wheat
per acre is about the average for the
country. In Minnesota. with her fresh
soil and unrivalled product. an average
of fourteen bushels is looked upon with
complacency. The average of Great
Britain, applied to the acreage in this
country, that now gives us something
over 800. 900. 900 bushels of wheat in a
fair year. would increase our product
to over !. 500, 0oO. 900 bushels.
GERMANi'S EXAMPLE.
There are more instructive studies in
national efficiency than this. The
German Empire has nearly 10000. 900
people compressed within little more
than POO, 900 square miles of territory.
She has not tied her fortunes to single
interest. Her manufacturing industries
are thrusting themselves into the mar