The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1909-09-23
9rrmunt @atrEmau.
THE FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE.


ing the qualities of craftsmanship.
His success has been due to the fact
that he can see farther into the flu
ture than most men. In an address
before the American Bankers Asso-
citation Tuesday, he made the startl-
ing statement that within ten years,
possibly less, we are likely to become
a wheat importing nation" We have
been accustomed to calling our coun-
try the "granary of the world and
to imagine that our production OF
wheat was practically unlimited.
That the condition of affairs is in
evitable is not borne out by Mr.. Hills
sto+oment which declares: "The
idea that we feed the world is being
corrected; and unless we can increase
the agricultural population and their
product. the question OF a source of
food supply at home will soon su-
persede the question Of a market for
our own products abroad.
Mr.. Hill evidently believes that
the rush to the city is responsible,
in part, at least, for the increase in
the cost of living. He asserted,
in his speech, that the majority
of people fail to realize practically
the declining status of agriculture in
the country. "They arc misled by
the statistics of farm values and pro-
ducts, mounting annually by great
leaps, into thinking that this absolute
increase implies realti!e advance
of this industry as compared with
Others" said he Exactly the oppo-
site is the case. l refer not merely
TO the quality and results of our til
lage, but to the setting OF the human
tide away from the cultivated helds
and toward the factory safe or the
city Stun. This is something whose
consequences for evil are as certain
as if the aggregate deposits in all
the banks of this country We're de-
creasing by fixed percentage every
ten years, while their loans were in
creasing by another percentage just
as stable. You would know what cat
astrophe that assured by and by.
at means the same thing in kind
and consequences when the agricul-
tural population, the producers and
depositors in the great national treas
ury of wealth, is declining year by
year, while the city population, which
thrives only by drawing drafts upon
the land and cannot live a year af-
ter these cease to be honored, rises
at it's expense Yet not only is such
a crisis approaching, but it is being
fastened by legislative stimulation
in favor of other industries while ov'
erlooking this
"A stationary or declining product
soil becoming annually less pro
ductive, a revolt against the life of the
farm and a consequent rise in wages
amounting, since 1895, to 500 pei
cent. with board, compel such rise
of all prices as bears ruinously upor
town and country alike. Our rea
concern is not so much to save the
home market from the inroads of the
foreigner as to keep it from destruc
ton by an enlarged city life and {
neglected country life, a crowded ar
tisan population clamoring for fooC
and a foreign demand for the pro
duct of their wages limited to fields
where the competition Of all the worlt
must be met and overcome"
The remedy would seem to be NOR,
intelligent methods of farming. From
1870 to 1900 the number and average
of farms in the New England ant
Middle States steadily increased, bu
the values of farms steadily declined
During the period named the popula
ton and wealth of these States in
creased enormously. The troubl
has been that farming has not KEEP
pace with other forms of industry
employed, and the outlook is mucl
more encouraging than it was fiv
years ago.
The Chicago Record Herald tell
how Vermonter originated the dr.
farming plan in South Dakota. II
had experienced u succession of un
profitable crops, owing re repeltc
drouths, AID had made lIp his mind >.
return East When making a fine
observation of his parched whea
fields he noticed little tufts of vigor
Gus grain here and there and foun
they grew about the tracks made
a lame mule. The phenomenon wa
apparently insignificant but it appea
ed to his imagination. He had pra'
teal brains and the conclusion b
formed was that the packing of tn
earth by the weight of the animal ha
supplied the conditions of life to thes
few stalks of his otherwise WORTHLESS
crop. Being a mechanic he adaptt
tools to the preparation OF the sc
in harmony with his new idea and
spite of the derision of his neighbo
and fellow-sufferer the results just
fed his faith, and it is stated tn
the late e. H. Hartman once to
him that a million dollars could n