The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-13

as National resource. From the soil the people of the country are supplied either directly or indirectly with food, clothing and shelter. These, farmers secure to great degree directly, and the city dweller secures through bar ter and exchange. In addition to the supplies furnished directly from the soil, whether in the form of vegeta- bles. fruits. grains, meats or dairy pro- ducts. or Indirectly from the soil in the form of textile materials, or the lumber and timber used in the domes- tic arts. the products of the soil also comprise nearly one-half of the ma- terials used in manufacture and the majority of the materials exchanged in commerce The soil is the greatest single producer of the raw materials of both manufacture and commerce. This Is rarely recognized even py the farmers themselves, and practically never taken into account in the dis cussion of the manufacturing and com mercial supremacy of the country.
 Not only does the soil furnish a living for the farmers and the city dwe1lers of the nation, but it fur nishes to a large degree all of those commodities whose sac and exchange have maintained a balance of trade favorable to the United States from the beginning of it's existence as a separate nationality.
 The Improved Lands.
 It has ire quently been stated, with a degree of truth, that the free lands and the cheap lands of this country have been occupied and are being de- veloped but there Is a large degree of error in such a statement and the statement is true only when taken to cover the entire territory of the country rather than specific localities. Thus the last Federal Census of 1900 shows that the agricultural domain of the United States consisted of 5,739,-i 657 farms, containing a total of S41,- 201.546 acres. Of this vast area only about one half Is improved land, while the remaining half consists of wood lots, swamps and land that for va rious reasons has never been plowed or cropped. or else has been suffered to go out of cultivation. Although the total area in farms is immense less than half of the land area of the continental United States has been turned into farms, and less than one fifth of the total land area is land which is actually improved. Even un- der these conditions of partial occu- patton the farm lands of the United States comprise an area seven times as great as the farm land area of France. eight times as great as that of Germany, and thirty-one times as great as that of England and Wales. By contrasting these three countries in the population of 135,000,000 people compared with S0,000,000 maintained within the United States, it can easily be seen by these figures that with the thorough occupation and development of existing American farm lands, a population from 10 to 20 times that of the present nopulation of the Init ed States can be maintained without greatly taxing the soil resources of the nation.
 The opportunities for the develop ment of American farm territory and particularly of the land already in farms is easily shown by a compar- ison of the figures of the total land area, the total area in farms, and the total area of improved land in each of the Southern States. This compar- ison is shown by the following table: