Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-25
What Has Been Done.

been particularly directed to the improve
ment of the conditions now existing in
the far northwest. We found for them
a wheat that will grow in dry conditions
and they have dry conditions; that would
survive cold winters. and they have cold
winters. The homeSeeker moved out there
some years ago, and began growing that
wheat succeeding fairly we'll. and wheat
was pretty much the only crop he could
grow there. BY and by the soil refused
to produce profitable crops of wheat, that
OF North Dakota particularly. No soil
will grow wheat continuously, unless
other crops are grown in conjunction with
1t or fertilizers are used, or something
of that nature. Those people, of course,
could not use fertilizers. They had no
money to buy them with and there were
none to get, unless they went all over the
world to get them-to Chile for nitrates
and to Florida for phosphates. So they
resorted to a custom quite prevalent in
European countries half a century ago
and further back than that. of blowing
without growing crop-a custom known
as a summer following.
"They supposed they could grow wheat
longer by that means: that is. by giving
nature two years in her laboratory to pre-
pare plant food for one crop. But it is
not profitable policy, and was abandoned
long ago where farming Is properly con-
Quoted. This came to the attention of
the department people, -and~they resolved
to find something to supply what was
needed up there.
Found a Wheat for Arid Lands.
''They had found, some seven years ago,
wheat that would grow in those condi-
tons. 1t was known as durum or hard
wheat. But it was wheat.
'Then they needed legumes. We had no
clovers that could be depended upon with
ia. t. VI
falfas that we were positive would answer
the purpose so far north. SO the depart
ment resolved to send it's best explorer
into the old world. into the northern lati-
tudes of the old world, where farming had
been carried on for long time, in order
to find legumes suitable for the summer
drought and winter cold of our northern
ATTITUDES. and such that could be used in
rotation with the wheat that had already
been furnished. Two years ago Prof.
Hansen of the South Dakota Agricultural
College was sent to Norway, Sweden, Fin
land. Lapland and Siberia to find those
legumes. He found them; that is, he
found three alfalfas that we had never
seen, with yellow blossoms instead of blue.
He found clovers that flourished up there
through the summers heat and the win
ter's cold. He found vetches and several
other things but as far as the story of
the northwest Is concerned, these suffice
TO illustrate. He brought home samples;
they were sown last year and they sue
ceeded. This year, after getting extra
money from Congress to pay expenses, he
was sent back to bring home carloads of
these seeds.
THE gathering of seeds in those coun-
tries is an interesting operation. There
are no Seedsmen. So Hansen went into
the villages of the Russian peopIe-people
who have always treated our explorers
with very great kindness-and got the boys
and girls and women to go into the fields
and commons and strip the seeds by hand
from those plants that we wanted, and he
Is now on his way back, loaded with
Spoils.''
Will Feed Soil From Atmosphere.
How Is the soil in these ancient coun-
tries renewed-n Syria around Damascus,
for example?"
They don't renew it, replied Secretary
Wilson; they keep on planting until by
and by 1t gets so poor they can do moth
ing with it. Explorers tell me they find
remains of old aqueducts there, showing
that the inhabitants had irrigation syS-
TENS at one time. but their forests have
been destroyed, their water is gone, the
soil is exhausted, and the land has become
a desert. They are only cultivating now
the more fertile spots, and that same
danger exists up in our northern attitudes.
We are at work trying to obviate il.
Now, then, the design of the department
is that as soon as the seeds can be pro-
pagated In sufficient quantit1rs '"se peo-
pie shall cease summer falIo rotate
their crops, get crop eve. ~. feed
the soil from the atmosphere and get
nitrogen into ii. Glaciated soils have
plenty of mineral plant food, and most of
those soils are glaciated soils When
nature ground up rocks and made those
soils, the plant food was in the rocks and
IL is in the soil. 1t has not been washed
out but, by bad management, by oxidiz-
ing out of the soil the organic matter that
comes from the atmosphere. which is not
found in the soil, one can render the land
unproductiVe The great secret nova
days with regard to successful FARMING is
to keep the soil in proper physical condl-
ton That is done generally without any
particular scientific investigation by west
ern men in growing pastures and grains
them, and when they want great big
crop they pillow up that pasture and they
have the necessary physical conditions
perfectly.
Scientific Farming Is General Now
The application of science to farming
has become general in this country?"
THE application of science to farming
is becoming more general every year
There are many forces at work and have
been for the last twelve years. Ar
inquiry into the yield of the acre made
by this department for the last forty
| years shows that during the first thirty
| years of that forty-year period the yielC
| OF the acre ran down per cent on al
average for the United States. Since
| that date. beginning about the time wher
| Mckinley went in twelve years ago, anC