Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1907-04-18
Farming.

0SVAA o0AS w W IApl IiAlc WIN SInul
acreage by intensive cultivation. but
that was mostly in Europe, whereas it
Is America that now leads the world
In possibilities of produce from the
soil.
"The farmer feedeth ALL" but it is
bitten forgotten that the farmer cloth
eth all and supplieth with nearly all
other things. Cotton, wool, fax, hemp,
dyes and the many products of cattle
used In manufacturing come from the
farm, 10 that intelligence applied to
farming becomes one of the most prof
table as we'll as fascinating Of studies.
Many are beginning to feel that the
life OF the lane is the natural life and
hope to find some way to live in more
normal surroundings.
The cry Of Back to the land!' and
the new desire of almost everybody to
possess, If not a farm, at least a bit
Of Mother Earth, are the symptoms Of
a revolt from the constraint and uncer-
tainty Of city life. 1--WE are not tied
to a desk or to a bench. We stay there
because we think we are tied. We
may get loose and trot off If we will"
Intensive cultivation cannot be stud
led In any one book, nor indeed can 1t
be mastered by any one man, but all
persons can learn from careful reading
what use can be made of their land
and where they can get the detailed
information that they need to make
use Of it. Even a back yard or a
fence orner can be utilized so as to
add materially to the family resources.
The poor negro thought when he heard
that he was to be freed that he was to
have ten acres and a mule" His
blind instinct told him that, divorced
from the land, there Is no real freedom
for the laborer. He did not get even
| the mule, IND we have a Tabor prob
lem" on our hands in the south in con-
sequence. Such difficulties will be
avoided by getting the people back to
the soil, close to the cities, where they
can get at it without being rooted up
and put into strange surroundings. 1t
is not necessary to go to the tropics to
realize the glowing prospects held out
by the colonization companies. They
are more likely to be realized at home.
In fact, most of those farof schemes
turn out to be gold bricks instead Of
| gold mines. The wise cultivator is the
one who gets a small piece Of valu-
able land near to a market and makes
the very best possible use Of 1T by the
application Of such large intelligence
and such small capital as a small area
requires.
The new science of intensive farming
will not make us put in seeds with
one hand and draw out profits with the
other" There are cases Of phenom-
email yields from virgin soils where
very little intelligence has been ap-
piled, but virgin soils are scarce and
are almost always far from markets
or inaccessible to markets.
Siillful choice of place and seed,
care in transplanting, nursing, spray
Ing. harvesting. packing and marketing
are necessary today to insure success
In cultivation. One thing only is un-
necessary-that is, large area. Today,
whether he has large capital or small,
the man who has three acres and fol-
lows the modern methods is far more
likely to succeed than the man who has
threescore.
Those who wish to get the people
back to the land, to relieve the conges-
ton Of the cities, to help the immi-
grants to find places where they will
be q strength to the country instead Of
a burden, to restore normal conditions
of living and to improve the physical
development Of the people can do no
easier Or more effective service than to
turn popular attention to intensive Gull
tivation by letters nj comments in
the newspapers. BOLTON HALL.
For MANY wears ono of tho most