Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1908-10-07

l the new population, whose added
product will help to restore our place
as an exporter of foodstuf The fruit
farmer. the truck IGrmer. every Gull
tivator of the soil who has specialized
his work has learned to put these
rules into practice as a matter Of
course. How to impress their force
upon the thirty million or more per-
sons who cultivate the land In this
country is the problem. It is no longer
one of method. Science has settled
that. and is adding more and more of
value every year. Il is merely how to
move the farmer to apply to his own
profit and the rescue of the nation
the better methods that are a familiar
story.
1T should appeal to him that the
modern system is both money
maker and a labor-saver. The cost of
rent and production for continuous
wheat cropping averages $3.50 per
acre. When therefore, the farmer
obtains, as so many of those in the
northwest do, yield of eight or ten
bushels per acre. L just about meets.
at average farm prices, the cost of
production. leaving him either no.
thing at all for his years toll or else
margin of debt For the same
amount of labor. covering the same
time but lntelHgently applied to
smaller area, he might esily produce
by improved methods twenty bushels
per acre leaving him profit of over
Sl2. The not unreasonable yield of
Is bushels would net him 500. which
is ten per cent on a valuation of 5000
per acre for his land This gigantic
waste, applying the same measure 10
the production OF the entire country.
is going on every year. If such asso-
Citations as this congress can stop II,
it will pay for building ITO Panama
canals every year; it will in two
years more than pay the estimated
expense of improving every available
waterway in the United States; 1t
will save more money to the farmer
than the railroads could IL they
carried all his grain to market free of
charge.
What Is true of wheat is true of
all the other products of the farm.
The splendid work done in this state
where we are met is to the point. The
average yield of corn in Wisconsin
has been raised. by the application of
scientific methods, from 81 to 4h
bushels per acre. The new value thus
created in a single state for a single
year amounts to about S15,000000. I
need not go into other details. be-
cause they are similar in kind and
anyone may examine them for him
self Such increase of the national
i wealth. such additional reward of la
Dor waits upon the adoption of the
/ best methods n every department OF
agriculture. Other peoples have been
/ quicker to learn it than we. DEN
/ Gark has ar area Of less than 10000
{ square miles. little less than one.
| fifth that of Minnesota, and a popula.
ton in 1906 or 2,6052 6s. Only so PEI,
cent of her area is productive, and
her population is 167 per square mile
Yet in 1906 she sent abroad over $50
100000 worth OF her home product OF
provisions and eggs. Great Britain
bought from her that year butter tc
the amount of s4s,OOO,00O and bacon
worth over $21,000,00O II is interest
ing in this connection to note that
though her population Is so dense
there were in 1905 but 754 men and
GO women in her penitentiaries.
The Netherlands.
The Netherlands is still more
closely compacted population Of 5.772,
237 on an area of 12,64S square miles
or 44S per square mile The advant
age of this is that il forces small
holdings and a more thorough tlllage
The average wheat yield in the Meth
erlands is 34.1S bushels as agains
our IA; she produces an average O
53.l bushels of oats per acre, wi /
we are satisfied with 23.7 bushels II
1907 and an average of less than q
bushels for the preceding ten years
her farmers gather 232 bushels of DO
tatoes from every acre so planted
while in this country, with soil cap
able of fabulous yields. we took II
954 bushels last year and averaged z
tride less than sc bushels for the last
six years. The difference between
50 and $50 bushels, at so cents Z
bushel, is over SEQ per acre
Rather heavy loss 10 pas
for poor farming II is not TO be
wondered at that the Netherlands
hardly larger than big comfy our
west after deducting enough fol
home consumption. exported more
than $4,000. 600 3rth Of cereals
flour butter and cheese; and that hel
people do not have to pay any pool
rates.
ITO such a height We can brinf
the productivity Of many Of our owr
fields. When we have done so, and
only then will the specters that
haunt our future vanish and the
questions that fl now puts to us re
ceive an answer worthy Of men care
full OF their future and thoughtful fol
their race. Every respectable author
ity on agriculture in the country will
indorse this statement But at pres
emf we are doing little practically. oui
on the land among the farmers Il
accomplish the change, the revolution