The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-14
AGRICULTURE,s ADVANCE.


under the heading Americas Amazing
Agricultural Advance" which appears
In the current issue of the Manufac-
turers' Record. that reliable and valu-
able trade journal published at Balti-
more, Md. 1t says in part:
THE increase in the value of farm
property of $4,000 100000 between 1900
and 1907 is nearly nine times as great as
the aggregate national banking capital
of the United States. 1t is more than
one-haf as large as the total capital
ization, bonds and stocks included, of
all the railroads in the United States.
1t is nearly three times as large as the
aggregate savings bank deposits of the
whole country. Think for a moment of
the increase, simply seven years in
crement, in the value of farm property
being nine times as great as the total
national banking capital of the United
states, three times as great as all the
savings banks deposits accumulated
during all the past and half as large
as the entire capitalization of all the
railroads in the United States, into
which the surplus money of the land
has been pouring for over three-quar-
tiers of a century.
I'm all the records of American de-
velopment nothing is more remarkable
than the advance made during the last
few years by the agricultural interests
of this country. The story of what the
farmers are doing and of what they
have accomplished within the last few
years is unmatched even by the mar
velouS growth in manufacturing. In
1890 the S,565,000 people engaged in ag-
riculture in this country produced
total of s2,466, 100000, or an average of
$2S7 per capita. In 1907 the II, 901, 900
engaged in agriculture produced a to-
tai of N,412, 100000, or an average of
s61S per capita. During that period
the number of people engaged In agri-
culture increased by 40 per cent, while
the value of farm products increased
by 200 per cent and the value of all
farm property increased by SO per
cent.
In the brief period between 1900 and
1907 the value of farm property ad-
vanced in value from $40, 439, 00O, 900 to
$2S,077, 100000. gain of nearly $780,
000, 900, or 81 per cent, though the
number of people engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits increased only Is per
cent.
Economic conditions practically as
sure a continuation of increasing val
ues of farm lands, of an increasing de-
mand for farm products, growing more
rapidly than the production is likely
to grow, and thus a continued high
range of prices for practically all the
products of American farms. The con-
sumner can no longer hope to get his
cotton goods, his bread and his meat
at the low price of 1896. We have been
passing through an economic revolu-
ton, or evolution, to a higher range of
living. This necessarily means high
| er range of prices for farm products
| and a higher range of wages for me-
| chanics.
with the agricultural conditions of
| the country in such a fundamentally
| sound position there cannot be any
such long period of Industrial depres-
sion We had in former years when
| the farmers were the poorest people in
| the land With the certainty of crop
yields. which in the aggregate will give
us the greatest amount of railroad ton
mage and the greatest value to farm
| products which we have ever had, ma
| ture has laid the foundation for a great
| expansion of industry.
| Much. however, as the farmers of
| this country have accomplished in the
| marvellous advance shown they are
only at the beginning of their pro-
! gress. Within the last five or ten
years there has been a rapid growth
in scientific farming. Under these con-
yield per acre. We are preparing for
| an increased yield much greater than
the increase In acreage. At the same
| time millions of acres of hitherto waste
land are being made, available for tho
| most profitable of agricultural pur-
suits. Irrigation in the semi arid re-
| gions of the west is turning a desert
| into fruitful orchards and vineyards
yielding immensely profitable crops
| What irrigation is doing for dry land
reclamation Is beginning to do on a
still more profitable scale for wet land
The country has learned that it is a
simpler proposition to take the surplus
water off of overfiowed lands than ii
is to bring a supply of water to the
dry land of the west. Thousands OF
acres reclaimed within the last few
years, yielding today great profits
where nothing was produced a few
linitable possibilities in saving tic
mans uses the millions of acres of re-
claimable wet lands which have here
tofore been without value. 1t is esti-
mated that the aggregate wet or over
flowed lands which can be reclaimed
are greater in extent and will be very
much greater in value per acre when
reclaimed than the entire acreage now
davotad IN the wheat and cotton cror,s