The St. Mary banner., 1907-02-16
|IEW DOOR OPENS TOFARMERS

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MILLIONS OF ACRES WASTED AN
NUALLY BY CARELEssNEss.
sreat Field Neglected
Possibilities Losses Due to Ignor-
+! ance-Farmers Experime ntIng-Na-
tives Great Laboratory.
"A new door has been opened to
he farmer. He stands on the thresn-
I'D Of a field Of forces that in their
bower to increase human welfare are
the most colossal that the world mas
even known; the creation out OF 'he
unutilized plant world Of an apso-
mtely new plant food
J These are the words Of David falr-
,hild, agricultural explorer in charge
af foreign explorations in the United
States Department of Agriculture.
Thoroughly at home in natures great
laboratory, which Re finds fitted up
and open for work in every Dit q
AGRICULTURAL land in the whole work.
Mr.. Fairchild is enthusiastically Ia
boring to help supply the demand TOT
new crops, that is coming from the
awakening of farmers to the posslDll-
tiles of their soil. In the World s
Work, Mr.. Fairchild says:
sThere are millions Of acres OF
land sown every year with the wrong
crops, causing millions Of Inneces-
sary crop failures, and there are MIL
lions of acres lying idle for want
Of the proper plant cultures for them
, ignorance regarding other crops than
those grown rather than an unrea-
soning conversation, is what mas
made the farmer plant cotton ana
corn in places where he should have
sown alfalfa or cultivated soy beans.
He has been blamed for this 1gnor-
ance which has cost the country bll-
hons of dollars, but the blame Is MOI
bis. The means have not been gwen
him and his seclusion until decade
Or two ago has prevented his get
Ting the information about new crops
and the seeds to experiment with.
when the New England farmer
found it had ceased to be profitable
% grow wheat because Of competition
from the great plains, it would have
been worth the country's while to
have spent large sums in search for
q crop to take its place. The Caro-
lima rice planters have abandoned
thousands of acres of rice fields be-
cause the Louisiana and Texas plant
ers can grow the crop more cheaply,
and the discovery of substitute Will
be worth millions annually to the re-
giOn."
1t was Mr.. M. A. Carleton, like
Mr.. Fairchild an agricultural ex-
plorer, who brought to the knowledge
Of American wheat growers, few
years ago, a fact that has been OF
vast financial profit to them, VIZ,
that a species OF wheat of which they
knew nothing and from which bread
could be made that man. people
thought the best in the wos.d was
grown in another part of the world.
Moreover, that this wheat would grow
on semi-arid land, where ordinary
wheat failed, would yield four BUSH
els more to the acre and would not
be affected by the diseases which
preyed upon the kinds they had been
accustomed to. Last year alone this
new wheat-the Observation-Disclosures
throughout the Northwest by the De-
partment of Agriculture, yielded the
farmers who grew it a net income
Of 81, 100000. Since 1899 it has earn
ed for the farmers Of America 49,
0OO, 900.
Rice was the first irrigated crop
to be grown in this country. Strange
as it may seem, the rice-growers paid
no heed to the remarkable varieties
grown so successfully in many parts
Of the Orient, but continued to plant
the kind they first tried. Now, it
is estimated that 100000 was an
nually lost by the rice planters of
Louisiana and Texas alone because
IACy ACPt VI 6AO"lA5 eiio AoAAo ~ 49,
led kind, that breaks in milling, in
stead of importing from Japan the
short-kernelled sort. The Office Of
Plant Introduction has introduced
short-kernelled rice, thus saving mil
lions to the rice planters of this coun.
try.
Not 2 per cent OF the edible plants
Of the world are known or grown by
American farmers. Not only so, but
the varieties that are possible from
ross-fertilization no man can pre-
dict. In this realm of producing new
forms of life-sustaining food and of
encouraging the farmers Of our COM
try to experiment along this line,
80 Trfv Ia