The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-08-15

Secretary of Agriculture Wilson esti- mates the total value of this years s farm products at $S,000, ,000, 900 or a gain of about $500. 100000 over 1907 Accepting Mir. Wilson's figures as cor rect. though we believe that they will prove to be too small, the per capita production will show another rapid ad- vance this year.
 Tn 1890 to 1905 the increasing pover- ty of the farmers of all sections, due to lowe prices was the subject of almost universal discussion. Consumers of farm products were then buying at a lower cost than they had ever known before. But the producers. the farm CTS of the land, were in dire poverty. With the increase in manufacturing during the last ten years and with the development of railroads and the large increase in the number of their em- ployes making a great gain in the number of consumers of farm products and the gradual elimination of the cheap lands of the West by settlements and the flood of gold pouring into the worlds channels of trade, we have had combination of circumstances which have united to bring about much higher range of values. The consum- CT of farm products Is no longer re- joicing In the low prices which prevail ed twelve or fifteen years ago. The farmer is now having his innings and though this condition works a hard ship upon many consumers 1t Is a great blessing to the country at large It should be matter of general rejoic- ing that the farmers are on rising ground financially.
 Much. however. as the farmers of this country have accomplished in the marvellous advance shown by these figures they are only at the beginning of their progress. Within the last five or ten years there has been a rapid growth in scientific farming. Under these conditions there is an increasing average yield pep acre. We are pre- pairing for an increased yield much greater than the increase in acreage. At the same time millions of acres of hitherto waste lands are being made available for the most profitable of agricultural pursuits. Irrigation in the semi-arid regions of the West is turn Ing desert into fruitful orchards and vineyards yielding immensely profita- ble crops. What irrigation is doing for dry land reclamation is begin ming to do on a still more profitable scale for wet land. The country has learned that 1t Is simpler proposi- ton 10 take the surplus water on of overflowed lands than it Is to bring n supply of water to the dry land of the West Thousands of acres re- claimed within the last few years. yielding today great profits where nothing was produced a few years ago, have shown the almost illimitable pos abilities in saving to mans uses the millions of acres of reclaimable wet lands which have heretofore been with out value. It is estimated that the aggregate of wet or overflowed lands which can be reclaimed and of dry lands which can be irrigated is greater than the acreage now devoted to wheat and cotton. This is. indeed, a verita- ble empire of boundiess probabilities which will add inmeasurably to the wealth of the South, where great re- clamation progress Is already uader way. Considering, the progress in scientific agriculture. the steady in- crease in the yield per acre now going on, the vast expansion in trucking and fruit growing for the needs of an ever expanding population the great possibilities in Irrigation and reciama- tion work. we can readily see that the agricultural interests of the country are only at the beginning of theR real broad development, and that the future holds in store a prosperity much greater even than the magnifi- cent advance since 1900 has brought them. These facts furnish a founia- tion for unbounded optimism as to the magnitude of our material progressNin the future.