The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1907-11-30
CROP ROTATION
Abuse Of Soil General
Throughout the United
States
CAUSE OF UN-
PROFITABLE FARMING
To Meet Demands for Farm
Produce, the Soil Must
Not Deteriorate.

IOuuCC, llC OOll N1uSI
Not Deteriorate.
(From address of Sec. Wilson at Syracuse,
New York;
The American people are prosperous.
Labor is all employed at the highest
wages paid in our history. Skill is in
demand in all lines of industrial activity.
Capital is increasing and active. Every
industry in the land is extending. Labor
from other lands looks to US and comes
to us. Schools are overAowing. Our
transportation systems, the best in the
world, are unable to meet the require
ments of commerce. Our manufacturers
more nearly supply home demands than
at any time in the past and sell heavily
abroad.
The farmer feeds the people as no
people ever before were fed and sells in
foreign markets surplus of l,I48 mil
lions of dollars worth of his products.
Prosperity, quite up to the average of
human success, attends intelligent man.
agement of farm affairs nowadays. No
class of people live better, enjoy life
more, or contribute as much to the
wealth>of the republic. These are the
strong things to be said. We are asked
to consider weak link in the chain
unproductive farms. 1t is wise move,
and it would have been commendable in
every state to make such inquiries at any
time during the last century. The call
comes late; the evils to be remedied have
travelled far in all the states.
The people Of the United States have
wasted their inheritance of lands and
woods, of fish in the waters, and minerals
in the earth. The soil has been robbed
in the east and south and west We,
have reached very high prices for farm
products; we see wood famine and very
high prices for fuel. Prices of lumber
have doubled in less than a decade.
This convention has been called to con-
slider decreased productiveness of the
soil near great centers of population.
Such conventions might we'll be called in
all the states of the Union. They are all
soil robbers and wood robbers and water
robbers and mine robbers.
There is an awakening everywhere
along this line. The southern states are
inquiring; they have grown one crop too
long. The newer states of the west are
looking into soil deterioration and its
remedies; they find that continual drafts
on the soil exhaust natures deposits.
Systems of rotation are necessary for
many reasons. The wheat grower in our
northern latitudes finds that wheat re-
fuses to yield proftably after a few
years continued cropping. The nights
are too cold to grow corn successfully.
Summer following has been resorted to
that is, plowing a season without a crop.
He does not know of any legumes that
will fit into a system of rotation. Clovers
from our lower latitudes would winter
kill. We have few grasses, grains or
legumes native to our country. We sent
an explorer to northern Europe and ST.
IBERIA to find suitable clovers, alfalfas and
the like for our northern latitudes, and
found them on the seventeen parallel in
Siberia. We hope to help our northern
brethren to annual crops through the
introduction of plants from extreme
|
mers, cold winters and light rainfalls.
Abuse OF the soil is the common prac.
tice of all farmers who do not prosper
They are found in all the states, and in
all the sections of all the states. If an
account were kept with the soil by each
owner, crediting the land with what is
removed of the several plant foods and
charging it with what is given back
farming processes would be reduced tc
maintaining proper soil conditions and
the books would show what has been
done to destroy or build up.
One of our great problems is the util
ization of our light rainfall lands west o.
the one hundredth meridian. The sol
is generally good, and, when irrigated
good crops are grown, but we have very
many acres that cannot be irrigated
They are above the water bitches. Tht
Old World has had the same condition.
and has suited plants to them or durine
the ages plants have suited themselves
by developing strains that exist anc
yield well in light rainfall. We grew
100000 bushels of such wheat in 1ool
and more during the present year. Gu
eastern people are eating this wheat
The semi-desert is feeding the east witt
bread, and will do so more and more il
the future as our explorers find cereals
grasses and legumes that are at home il
light rainfall. We have large areas o
land that have not enough moisture t.
fully develop plant life. The thickl,
populated countries of the Old Worli
begin at the sources of the streams an,
build reservoirs to hold water agains
times of drought. This is particular
/ necessary on thin soils. It will be don
in our country before many years. Cap
ital would be remuneratively employees
now in so doing.
The pasture is the exponent of tn
farm. 1t should have growing in it al
the grasses and legumes suitable to tn
soil and climate. No one plant makes