The Norfolk weekly news-journal. (Norfolk, Neb.) 1900-19??, 1909-12-10
HILL SOUNDS
WARNING NOTE
GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY HEAD
SAYS FARM BETTER"
SCIENTIFIC FARMING is NEEDED
PhiIosop her.Builder Of the Northwest
Comes to Omaha and Delivers an Ad.
dress Before the National Corn Ex-
position-Raise More Crops.

dress Before the National Corn Ex-
position-Raise More Crops.
Omaha, Dec. 9.-The big music hall
of the national corn exposition build
ing was crowded today when James j.
Hill, "the empire builder of the north
west" gave his address on the press
ing need of system of farming in
the United States which shall greatly
increase the productiveness of the soil.
The time when the farms of this coun-
try, as at present titled, will not feed
| the people, is near; the extension of
area is practically at an end, he said.
"The whole subject of our food sup
ply and its relation to population, in
dustry, growth, institutions and every
thing that concerns our future is ap-
propriate for this occasion. The true
statement of the broad general fact
which it is most desirable that every
one should understand is this: That
! this country cannot feed the popula-
| ton which it must necessarily have
within comparatively few years if it
does not change its agricultural meth
DDS. The emphasis is all on that con-
ditional clause.
I'VE cannot support our coming pop
| ulation upon the crop yield per acre
that now satisfies us. We have to
transform growing decline in value
and productivity of our soil under con.
tinued cultivation into a rapid increase
| in both. If the crisis can be seen
moving upon us now, and If it took
Great Britain over half a century to
raise her wheat yield from about fif-
| teen bushels to thirty-two bushels per
acre, we have not time to lose. What
has to be considered the keynote of all
present discussion, is not the difficulty
but the urgency of the task. The
! whole argument Is one not of despair,
but of reinsurance; provided only that
we do the obvious, indispensable and
feasible thing, and do it now.
Raps Lottery System.
"Area is inelastic. Our public lands
are mainly exhausted. A few more
years will see the last of them. And,
lest they should not be squandered
quickly enough, we not only offer them
| to everybody under conditions that in
vite and reward fraud, but when the
government finds itself burdened with
a particularly choice and valuable
tract of farm land it holds a lottery
and distributes it among Tom, Dick
and Harry, no matter whether farm
ers or spectators, after they have
been collected from distant parts of
the country by appealing to the pas.
sion for gambling. The areas to be
obtained by reclamation work would
not, all told, take care of our increase
for two years. So there are final linn
its already in sight to the quantity of
tillable land.
the food supply as compared with
acreage and with population both de.
cline. Our total agricultural product
has been growing so rapidly and so
immensely that we find it hard to
realize that this may be entirely con-
sistent with failure, at the same time,
to keep pace with the growth of ma
tional needs. The country, unless
there shall be a change, is approach
ing time when it must import wheat
to meet home needs. Other food pro-
ducts also lag behind the constant new
demand. Since that demand cannot
be escaped, and since not to meet it
means want or lowering of the stan
dard of life and comfort in this coun-
try, which no American would wish
to see, there is but one course before
the nation. That is to increase the
productiveness of the farm so that the
earth's gifts may year by year equal
or exceed the peoples requirements.
1T is the more necessary because
the great bulk of our foreign trade is
made up of these commodities. Food
stuffs and articles but one removed
from the soil are the currency with
which we have paid for what we
bought abroad. What we have to do
in this country is to apply to farming
the scientific knowledge shaped now
to practical uses, that will raise our
average product per acre to something
like that of countries which lack many
or our advantages of soil and climate.
When Great Britain, in what her own
f~NP'S 'Neoiu 90 al u6S vi
decline, can produce over thirty-two
bushels of wheat per acre, and other
grains in proportion, while the United
States calls it a big crop when it's av-
erage rises to fourteen, it argues mere
want of intelligence on the part of
this country; a failure to grasp the
simple reasons for coming hardship
and its obvious and natural remedy.
Must Quit Abusing Soil.
"All that is needed to turn an i'm.
pending national good deficit into
surplus, to support in plenty $50 or
more persons to the square mile in
the United States, is the use instead
OF the abuse of the soil; the practice
of that knowledge which agricultural
schools and experiment stations have
already formulated and are daily put.
ting before the people. The future of
this nation, political and moral as well
as financial, is bound up with the fu-
ture OF the farm. BY that will our
character and our institutions be tried.
BY II, In the long run, all wealth Is
M aut