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

III tAdL pA4SAA sGts uAl We a ALREADY
where We cannot. without changing
our wage scale and revolutionizing our
industrial system. produce pig iron
cheaply enough to compete with Eu-
rope. And forty or Atty years hence.
with our enormously increased de
mand for the metal that has made
progress possible, and our depletion o.
its supply. we shall be in no position
to meet the foreigner in trade or 10
furnish from this source a fund to pur.
chase food.
1T is sufficient 70 state coalitions
thus broadly. They enforce their own
Conclusions An the important items
in consumption and in expor- show
that We have hard master To reckon
with by the middle or this century:
and that We must develop from some
quarter occupation and a food supply
for more than 1f0,000,000 additional
people 1t should be such as will
maintain a standard of living no lower
than that which now prevails II we
are not to witness terrible social and
political commissions.
Farm Is Hope of Nation.
1t is as clear as any future event
can be that the farm is the only hope
Of our national salvation Just as it
is today the real source of our veal h.
the handspring of our domestic com
merce that exceeds the trade Of all
Europe combined. so must w draw
upon it for coming needs. All else
suffers progressive exhaustion and will
be poorer dependence a generation
hence than It is today. The sol alone
renews itself erdures patiently, and
is capable of vie ing increasing re
wards to industry 5 agriculture con
forms more closely to the principles
that science and experience have de-
yeloped, The products of the ear h
and the population OF the earth may
increase together. so that the one will
support the other. II is the sole es-
cape from the melancholy conclusion
to which Nautilus was forced long ago
because. in his time, the possibilities
of modern soil culture were not I'M
derstood.
Here. then, is the problem, here the
labor for a Farmers Congress, This
is your work You must show how to
make good the scarcity OF food supply,
To this occupation the country must
look not only for bread but for EN-,
ployment, for the means of advance
ment, for stability of institutions and
for individual happiness The farmer
must furnish an additional $600,OoJ.O0O
which we have seen will be necessary
by 1905 to sustain the people The
task is stupendous. Yet it will not
be found very difficult If we go to
work in the right way.
The Farmers Problem.
Il have stated the national problem
in terms of wheat; its solution ad-
mits of similar statement. The aver.
age vie of wheat per acre in the
United States in 1907 was IA bushels.
The average for the last ten years
has been 1888. That is, in 1907 1t
required 45,211,00O acres to produc .
! the 634,0S7 900 bushels asat we
raised. 1t is a disgraceful record
About a century ago this was the av.
erage production per acre of Great
Britain. After the appointment of a
royal commission and a campaign for
better methods of cultivation begun
over a hundred years ago. today the
| fields in the United Kingdom, titled
for thousand years. in a climate
whose excessive moisture is unfavor'
able to the wheat farmer, yield over
/ 80 bushels of wheat per acre Ger.
many. an agricultural country almost
since the time of Tacitus. produces
/ PIG bushels per acre. Suppose that
the United States produced rs
bushels. or double it's present show
ing. That would be 10 extraordin
airy record, in view of what European
countries have done with inferior
soils and less favorable climates il
would have added G34,000000 bushels
to our product last year. Here we
perceive the answer TO the question
that the future asks. Here We see how
: the 200000,000 people or Whereabouts
I in the year 1850 are to be fed Here
we see where the money must come
from for our national support II
must be earned by and paid to the
farmers of this country. Only thus
may we escape an economic calamity
more threatening and more real than
the people realize. 1t win not come by
wishing for it or by law-making or in
/ any other way than through labor in
diligently applied. It implies a great
ly different agriculture from thai
! which now prevails.
To reach an average yield Of from
twenty to thirty bushels Of wheat pei
acre in this country Is as feasible as
! to increase capital by lending money
at interest How ii may be done has
( been explained so often and is today
so thoroughly taught in every agricul
tural college and at every experiment
station in the country that one al
most besitates to repeat It am .Ioi
! now referring to market gardening OF
I the intensive agriculture properly so
/ called by which marvellous results
/ have been obtained. which. In the rs
land Of Jersey gives an annual in
come Of $3.50 per acre. II Is possible
I to grow from 900 to 1000 grains 81