The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1908-10-30
TO FEED FUTURE MILLIONS
Extensive Cultivation Must Be Practioed
And Soil Waste Stopped

May last, is making rapid progress
towards the completion of its share Of
the inventory of natural resources
which the commission is making. This
section has charge Of the investigations
into the present condition and use OF
agricultural land, and the statistics on
which it will base its report are prac-
tically all in hand.
Two exceedingly interesting ques-
tons upon which the Section IS gather
ing data are whether the tendency is
towards larger or smaller farms and
whether soil productiveness per acre IS
increasing or decreasing. The answers
to these questions are not only vital at
present, since they will indicate
whether there is a noticeable trend
towards monopolization of the soil and
whether the diminution Of fertility
which is known to have taken place In
some districts is general, but they are
peculiarly significant in connection
with the prediction that within halt
century the population Of the United
States will reach 200, 100000.
James ]. Hill, the railroad organizer,
who presented some startling figures
on soil waste at the White House con-
ference of governors last May, said re-
Gently that all the natural resources OF
the country put together will not be
able to furnish profitable employment
for such a population without conser-
walton of the SOIL With the maximum
possible acreage Of wheat in fifty years,
he predicted that with a continuation
of present methods Of cultivation the
nation would be about 1904, 100000
short of the amount necessary to pay
its annual bread bill. This deficit, he
declared, could by no possibility be
met, even partially, through selling raw
products or manufactured articles
abroad. The only hope will lie in
agriculture. But agriculture, he said
would amply furnish both occupation
and a food supply, provided proper
methods of farming were employed and
that all agricultural land was brought
to its full usefulness.
A half century is so short a time
that the problems of fifty years hence
are almost the problems Of today.
People now alive will actually meet
them and have to solve them. Thirty
six out Of every hundred Americans
are farmers now, and last year Ameri-
can farms yielded crops worth 81 ,4l2,-
900, 900. Any advance or retrogres-
sion in agriculture affects not only the
leading industry of the country and
the largest number OF workers directly,
but all others as well, since it is the
source of their food supply.
Since there is comparatively little
public land left suitable for agriculture,
the mere increase in population from
now on, even if the proportion OF
farmers remains SO per cent and does
not greatly increase as Mr.. Hill proph-
estes must result in a subdivision of
the present farm area Of the country
among larger number of workers and
a more intensive cultivation of the soil.
The farmers themselves are awake
to the importance of preventing further
losses of the most fundamental of all
the natural resources and of increasing
the efficiency of that which remains.
Hardly a meeting of farmers organiza-
tons this summer and fall has failed to
pass resolutions endorsing the work OF
the Conservation Commission along
this line. At the close of the recent
session of the Farmers National
Congress in Madison, Wisconsin, at
which representatives from all parts OF
the country were present, the first
resolution adopted was the following,
which is typical Of many others:
THAT we hereby favor the move
ment for the better conservation OF
the natural resources Of the country,
especially the conserving Of soil. The
movement to stop wanton waste has
not commenced a moment too soon.
We commend the farsighted states
manship of President Roosevelt in
calling the conference Of Governors to
consult on this important subject and
endorse the aims and purposes Of the
National Conservation commission.