The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1909-09-30


many of our people growing up, our
young people growing up in this coun-
try, think they must go to town if
they are going to get on in the world
They think the town or city is the
place to get rich. Now, want to call
your attentio:. to the fact that about
one-hird, and not to exceed one-third
of the active bread winners of the
people are making their own living
through their own efforts, not to ex-
coed one-third Of those ten years old
and upwards are today on the land,
cultivating the land, yet, what do we
find?
We find the crop matured in 1908
we have MOI the returns of the pres
ent crop yet-but the crop matured
in 1908 amounted in value to this
country to over eight billion dollars,
eight billion dollars Is q sum that the
human mind can hardly comprehend.
1t is thousand million, and when we
compare all the wealth produced In
all the mines and elsewhere In the
country all others sink into insignif-
canoe in comparison.
It Is more wealth than has been
taken out Of all the gold, silver, cop
per, and iron mines since the COM
mencement Of time IT, this country,
and still the young people think they
must go away from that perennial
mine, they must go away from that
and leave it and neglect it to go to
town, ninety-fve times out of one
hundred to fail. Keep the young men
and the young women on the farm.
And let me say that when they do not
remain on the farm, and when they
do not take care of the land the COM
mencement of the end is at hand, and
this nation will follow the path that
has led other nations to point where
their names are the only thing left on
the pages of history. The greatest
nations of the earth have passed away
because they neglected their land.
Everyone, commencing with the
cradle of the human race in the valley
of Meseoutania the valley of the Up
'.rates, the great cities are marked by
lilies of desert sand and that is all
that is left, with the wandering rabs
seeking green spot ON which to feed
their sheep or horse and following
from there west the country that has
neglected cultivation and the intel
igent preservation of it's soil has in
variably ceased to exist and the ma
tons that have taken care of their
soil, the nations who have looked AZ
ter it, seen to it, they have continu
ed to live and to prosper.
Now, in 100 after the Revolution
airy War was settled Great Britain
found the people leaving her land in
such numbers that rents--and most OF
their land. owners Lived from their
rent rolls, their rents were declining
to a point where q man might be call
ed land poor, according ito the amount
Of land he owned. They appointed q
royal commission to consider what
should be done to keep the people
ON the land, and they found the pre-
servation of the soil was a matter Of
first consideration. They went to
work intelligently with the co-opera-
ton of the land lord, and 1t was
more easily done from the fact that
most of the land was rented. and they
had 1t within their power to fix the
terms and conditions in the lease, reg
ulating the number of grain crops, and
the number Of green crops, but it
took more than fifty years to raise
their yield from fourteen to twenty
Ave bushels to the acre, and the lat
est figures I have which was year
before last, their average was 1922
bushels per acre Of wheat. That was
the necessity forced upon them. Do
not let 1T become such a necessity
with US.
We have in the older states in
this country, the same thing is repeat
ing itself. In the great state of New
York which fifty years ago had the
great wheat field OF the nation in the,
Genesee Valley. Z. ..
Today that wheat field is a COW
pasture, more profitable for dairy pur-
poses than it was for wheat, but the
mixed farms throughout the state Of
New York, and down the Mohawk val
ley that were worth from one hundred
and hundred and twenty-five dol
lars, and even hundred and fifty
dollars an acre, forty or fifty years
ago today you can buy them for from
thirty to fifty dollars an acre. Why?
Because the young people went away
from the farm and the old people
could no longer cultivate them, and