The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-10
KANSAS COHNENT
CAR SHORTAGE AND RIVER I'M
PROVEN FNTS

/
PROVEMENTS
Ine advocates of extensive and
| thorough going river improvements
are making much of the car shortage
.ihey assert that there is but one
'Eetnod through which relief from car
mortgages can be had. That method
IS IN the Improvement Of the inland
waterways of the country. With the
inland waterways improved, the addi-
.'onai facilities demanded by shippers
6y rail- could be afforded. The fact of
enormous development, and the fact
mat with each year the car shortages
grow more serious and more costly and
DISASTROUS, are the surest guarantee
mat there are freight offerings amply
-uh1cient in volume to tax the capacity
q both means of transportation, and
/ tnat the relief which shipper and re-
ce1ver demand. would inure to the
relief of the railway.
There can not. in the nature of
Things, they contend, be hostility in
competition between the river and the
rail Last year the upper Ohio held
IN leash for more than six months
100000 bushels of coal, which the
manufacturing interests of the mid
Gle and lower Ohio needed and could
OF have, because of the continued
low water in the Ohio. AT Ogden.
fugar beets awaiting the time when
the railways can handle them. Be-
cause of the low water in the Ohio
the 100000 bushels of coal were
sugar beets. with the lack of value
extending 20 the labor that would have
been employed in the factories If the
coal had been received or If the sugar
beets could be moved.
without means of transportation,
production is a waste of time and
money. With Improvement of the
waterways production would be stimu-
lated because of the certainty of
reaching a market. The proposition
brought to accomplishment, they be-
iieve, without the adoption of a set
lied policy on the part of the federal
government such as the national
The coming session of the congress
1T Washington, on December to 10,
will outstrip it predecessors in the
TACT that it will assemble with the
nowledge that its platform-"A
Policy; Not Project"-meets with the
tordial approval of all interests, with
only persistence needed to produce the
desired result.-Hutchinson News.
MAKING ALL SOIL PRODUCTIVE.
The day is coming in this country
when there will be no waste land
Drainage and irrigation will make the
deserts and the swamps blossom.
0CiCUCC AdS taught anu - oo3iy tCcASA-
ing how we can use every inch of soil
in this vast country and has given us
many examples of making the desert
blossom. A few short years ago land in
many of the western states was con-
sidered worthless. Now it Is selling for
several hundred dollars per acre be-
cause the value Of scientific irrigation
has been taught us. In eastern Colo
RADIO and in western Kansas land
which was not even considered good for
pasture is producing crops of various
kinds which can not be duplicated In
the entire United States. We have all
heard of the wonderful development in
Oregon, Montana and Idaho, where the
land has been irrigated.
And besides the draining of the
swamps and the irrigation Of the arid
lands there is the wonderful system of
dry farming which Is now coming to be
generally known BY this system sew
eraf million acres Of land in districts
where the rainfall Is light can be cult
waited successfully. BY this method the
soil is prepared In such a manner that
all the moisture which falls is caught |
and retained near the surface. It has
been shown that by dry farming wheat |
can be raised with profit. It seems that
nothing is impossible for the scientific |
when it comes to making land produce |
bountifully. Each year brings with IL |
some new discovery and some scientific |
aid to the farmer to improve or redeem |
his land. and as long as the govern |
ment continues with its experiment sta |
lions and with its experts to work on |
the problem, new discoveries will be !
made.-Wichita Eagle.