Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1908-10-01
IMPROVED FARMING ALONE CAN
AVERT A GREAT NATIONAL CRISIS
So Declares j. j. Hill to the Farmers
National Congress
Population Increasing Rapidly and Must
Be Fed and Employed
Manufacturing to Decline Owing to For
eign Competition and Loss Of Special
Advantages

sourceful efforts, the greatest railway
creator and operator in America IL
not in the world, believes in lnten-
sive farming as the future salYatlon
Of this republic. so he told great
audience in the armory yesterday al
ternOon, and thousand auditors
aDpIauded. Mr. Hill sent at his hear
ers fusillade of figures which was
convincing. He showed that popula-
ton was increasing tremendously
and that, unless a change occurred,
there would be scores Of millions to
feed within the next half century and
not CROUCH loaves by yet more mil
lions to 20 round. The remedy is in
dividing the farms and obtaining
more from the land by method, by
fertilization and intelligent farming.
Il was a powerfully effective talk;
and good stuff for members of the
national farmers congress who heard
1t. Mr. Hill said:
HIS ADDRESS.
1t has often happened in gatherings
10 promote the interest Of agriculture
or irrigation or waterways or some
other national undertaking, that so
many side issues have crept in as to
interfere with the work and weaken
the conclusions Of the convention. To
avoid this error should be your first
care; since it can have no effect upon
a public that has learned TO discount
all so-called official utterances that
are not germane 10 the body from
which they issue and the subject to
which they are supposed or pretend
to relate; and since a wide scattering
of subjects must prevent that full dis
cussiOn of work and interests, which
alone can make it worth while for
you to assemble in gatherings such as
this
For this reason / will confine my
self very closely in what | have to
say TO The present state Of the argicul-
tural interest in this country; to the
emergencies which ordinary foresight
can distinguish in its near future;
and to those remedies and improve
and which are not merely experiment
tai but asCeTtained fact. What we
are here for is TO consider how to in
crease the farmers successes, lessen
his failures and place his work upon
the most certain foundation. His Oc-
cupation is the first to exist in a
civilized state 1t is the basis of all
other industry And only recently we
are coming TO realize that it is an
exact science. The man no longer
deserves the name of farmer who con
ceives of his industry as a scratching
of the earth, a hit-Ormiss scattering
of seed and a harvesting of such yield
as soil and weather may permit. That
is not farming. but game Of chance.
This is, therefore, a gathering of rep
reseutatives of n profession; and as
such it is first study to consider the
place Of farm industry in the national
economy, and TO what extent it is pre-
pared to meet present and future de
mands upon it, For grave national
concerns, the state of civilizations, the
condition Of social life and the fate of
institutions as we'll as the farmers
position and prosperity will depend
upon his readiness to meet the work
surely coming in the advancing
years.
After an army has been raised
and before it can enter upon any
campaign. the first consideration is to
provide its food. If that is a failure,
the bravest and best organized force
will melt away in a week. Our ma
rional supply of food, in like manner,
is fundamental to the organization of
our social life and to the progress of
all our industries. Here we have so
many people Here will be, in few
years. so many more. These things
are mathematically certain. What
demands will they make upon the
country. and how we'll is it prepared
TO meet them? No question can be
so fit for the consideration of Il Farm
vrs' congress- Indeed it is difficult
To inJelHgently consider other ques-
tons until that one has been settled.
And it is far from settled now. Until
lately it seems scarcely to have been
thought of and it is generally dis
missed with the vague assertion that
things will come out all right as they
always have" 4 Farmers congress
should understand and prepare for
the work that lies before the farmer
not in some indefinitely distant flu
lure hut within this and the next sue
ceeding generation.
1t is as we'll assured as any future
event can be that the population of
the United States will be 100000 600
by about the middle Of the present
century. or in less than fifty years
This is proved by the ratio OF in
crease in the past. 1t may come d
few years later or a few years earlier
nc or9;ug to circumstances. for good
times lift both the immigration total
and he domestic birth rate while de-
preston decreases both. However.
his is inmaterial Millions of per
sons row living will see the 200
COO eco people here; and the first
r~rs.c en- is how they are to be fed.
There will be many grave problems
r. such n human growth, but We may
foT Che time being dismiss all the