The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1909-01-09
Public Land and Poor Tillage


In his recent address on the conser-
vatio. of our natural resources, Jam es
j. Hi. the distinguished railroad
builder and operator. presented some
strIl ing figures showing the astonish
ing rapidity with which the vast do
main of the United States has disap
peared.
"The whole interior of this CONT
nent. > be said. 'aggregating more
than 500. 900. 600 acres, has been oc-
cupied by settlers within the last fifty
wears. What is there left for the
next fifty years? Excluding arid
and irrigable areas. the latter limited
hy nature and barely enough Of which
could be made habitable in each year
to furnish farm for each immigrant
family. the case stands as follows: In
1906 the total unappropriated public
lands in The United States consisted
of 792.000 600 acres. Of this area
ifornia. Colorado, Idaho. Montana.
Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming
contained 1875, 100. 900 acres of unsur
veyed land Little of Alaska is 6t-
ted for general agriculture. while
practically all of the rest is semi arid
land. available only for grazing or IT.
~
totals. so. 900. 600 acres of surveyed
and 36. 100000 acres of unsurveyed
land as our actual remaining stock.
And 21.U00.00 acres we're disposed
OF Ia 1907. How long will the re-
mainder last? No longer Can we say
that"Uncle Sam has land enough to
give us all r, farm"
Mr. Hill is a severe critic Of waste
full agricultural methods and is one
of the ablest workers for more gen.
eral application of scientific princi-
pies on American farms. SIN DO
OF er important U n try in the
world,' be SAYS" with the exception
OF Russia, is the industry that must
be the foundation of every state, at SO
low an ebb as in our own. Accord
ing to the last census the average an
nual product per acre of the farms Of
the whole United States was worth
S1l 49, 1t is little more than res
pecta BILE rental in communities where
the soil is properly cared for and
made to give reasonable return for
cultivation There were but two
states in the Union whose total value
OF farm product was over $50 per
acre of improved land. The great
state of Illinois gave bns ST.. 50, and
Minnesota showed only IS. IA. No
di scriminatien attaches to these fig
ures. where all are 50 much at fault.
''Nature has given to US the most
valuable possession ever committed to
man. 1t can never be duplicated,
because there is none like it upon the
ing and improverishing it exactly AS
we, are telling the forests and rifline
the mines. Our soil, once the envy
of every other country. the attrcation
which draws millions of imm igrants
across the seas. gave an average yield
for the whole United Sattes during
the ten years beginning with 1896
of IS 5 bushels of wheat per acre.
Austria and Hungary each produced
over II bushels per acre, France 70. s.
Germany q. 6 and the United King
dom 30. bushels per acre. For the
same decade our average yield of oats
was less than 80 bushels while Ger
many produced 46 and Great Britain
A.. For barley the figures are %
against 33 and "a 6: for rye 49,
against "a for Germany and 26 fo1
Ireland. In the United Kingdom,
Belgium. Denmark. and The Neither.
lands yield of more than 80 bushels
of wheat per acre has been the average
for the past five years.
sour agricultural lands have been
abused in two principal ways: first
by single cropping. and second by
negl &c t ng fertilization. The two
remedies are as we'll ascertained Hs
is the evil. Rotation of corps and
the use of fertilizers act as trnics up.
on the soil. We might expand oul
resources and add millions of dollars
to our national wealth by conserving
soil resources. instead of exhaustina
them as we have the forests and the
contents of the mines. For there il
good authority for the assertion that
the farmer could take from the same
area of ground in four years grain
crops out of total of seven years az
much as the whole seven now give
him, leaving the products of the other
three years when the land rested from
grain as clear profit due to bette,
Methods -
Farmers Bulletin No. $40. EMIT.
led Alfalfa