The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1909-12-22
AMERICAS GREAT
ANNUAL WASTE
HUGH J. HUGHES or THE A. c.
DISCUSSES THE VAST Or FER.
Utility IN RECENT ISSUE OF
THE FARM STOCK AND HOME
FIGURES APPALLING.

die Of the past century. tells, In one Of
those Illuminating chapters that makes
Les Miserables'' one Of the books that
remain through all the Hux of '1itera-
ture," of the sewers Of Paris, and their
gift to the sea.
He estimates that so long ago as
1850, or earlier, Paris alone annually
swept out of it's sewers into the Seine
not less than $4,000 worth OF fer
tilizer, and that the loss Of fertility
from the agricultural lands OF fertility
from the agricultural lands OF France
was not less than 500, ZOO, 900 per year
And France Is a small nation, as
compared to the United States: its
agricultural interests are much less
The estimate made by tho French
writer provokes a comparison of the
improvident farming that mines the
soil from year to year, without taking
into account the demands OF the flu
ture.
For grain farming is essentially
mining: 1t removes mineral elements
from the soil just as effectively as
does the pick and shovel of the miner,
and the results in the one case are as
they are in the other-exhaustio OF
resources, poverty. abandonment.
From a recent bulletin of the Illinois
experimental station--No 123-the fol-
lowing figures are taken as a basis Of
estimate A corn crop OF 100 bushels,
with three tons of slower, removes fer
tility to the value OF $29 annually. Since
for the northwest this is about double
the yield per acre, it is fair to call the
draft of the average corn crop Of Min
nesota or the Dakotas SIS per acre
Oats, reduced in the same manner to
average northwestern yields, fifty bush
els per acre, takes approximately $40
from each acre so cropped. Wheat, a
crop that is almost wholly direct loss
to the land on which 1t is grown, due
to the shipment of the grain, due
to the shipment Of the grain and the
burning of the straw, has the same
value-s10 per acre. A toA ( timothy
hay removes fertility to the value Of
$40; and rye and barley do not differ
markedly from oats and wheat.
The above figures are based on a
fair valuation of the elements taken
out Of the soil in the process Of plant
growth-nitrogen at Is cents per pound
and phosphorus at IL cents, and potas-
SUM at s.
Here is a definite commercial loss
to the filds-a loss that must be made
good in one way or another II this
country is to maintain its place as a
cereal producing nation. Whether the
fertility is allowed to be washed away
into the creeks and rivers, or is piled
up in neglected fence corners, or is
shipped in the guise of grain over
sea- matters little. Follow the account
little further.
The average half-section farm OF
the northwest, according to, these esti-
mates, producing in the main small
grains, the balance of the farm used
for pasturage and little corn, is hav-
ing removed from it's soil annually,
under the grain farming system, from
50, 500 SO, 500 worth of fertility per year.
bushel Of wheat, taking no account
of the starw, is worth about 81 cents
as fertilizer; the ton of straw, growing
on the average acre of wheat ground,
and burned up to get it out of the way
of the plows, represents better than
$3.50. The manure that the hired man
hauls out on the stone boat and dumps
over the bank into the creek has a
value about equal to a good hat, for
each ton so readily disposed of-some-
thing like $2.4O. An acre Of timothy
hay, with a fair crop of two tons, costs
the farmer $1,000 for the bare raw
mineral that went into it's making.
Now here are a few facts worth con-
sidering. The average farmer either
sells his timothy outright, or else feeds
1t and returns the manure to grain
fields The timothy field is left i'm
poverished after it's season of hay
cropping. The average farmer of the
northwest still burns his wheat straw,
and he must of necessity sell his wheat
His oats straw he hauls to the feeding
lot, where it is threshed, possibly to
be returned to The fields, too often to
be disposed of in the most convenientr
way. So with his barley, rye and fax
But If there Is gravel pit on his farm
he recognizes the value of gravel as a
commodity, and harges for 1T; but the
more valuable mineral wealth that lies
hidden in the grain, the straw pile, the
manure heap he filings away, freely, a
gift to the sea.
The aggregate of this waste is some
thing so APPALLING that the mind car
scarcely grasp its Significance. The
spring wheat crop of the United States
represents in its 300, 100000 bushels
total, a value Of over $50, 100000 vast
ed fertility without accounting for the
loss occasioned by tia burning OF
straw. OF that the spring wheat states
return but little. The bran goes to the
dairy districts of the east. a large par
OF the crop goes over the sea. verJ
little of the wealth taken out OF the sol
ever returns to the wasted acres Al
significant is the story for the othe,
great money crops. 1t is stated or
careful estimates that the total loss Il
the farms Of the nation due to waste.
full and improvident handling of theii
resources equals one-half the tota
value of the crops produced, or tn,
stupendous total OF $4,000, 100000.
So long as the land is young, ant
the crop-making minerals abundant
our gift to the sea may continue witt
no apparent loss to the farmer Blu
as surely as the days come and go
the gift becomes a debt that our som
and their postertty must pay in full
When our iron mines are gone, anC
our coal exhausted, when the little re,
manning stumpage of the northwes
is finally removed. there remains only
the land for all the centuries TO be, am
he is a wise man who secures title TO ;
home that shall be heritage for hi
children. and who keeps 1t in the full
vigor of youthfulness and hands /
down to his sons unwasted- gift 1
} TO humanity.
/ Cleveland Plain Dealer: "A distress.
Ing error found it's way into the pape