Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1909-11-05
How Shall the People Be Fed ?


Do to Be Fed" in the Worlds Work for
November. 1t is the first of series of
articles along this line.
Mr. Hill predicts a shortage of bread
stuffs production unless a very radical
improvement in agricultural methods is
adopted, and points to good small farming
as the preventive of such national ca
| lamity.
Land without population" he says, lis
a wilderness, and population without land
is mob. A prosperous agricultural inter
est is to nation what good digestion is to
| a man.
For many years this country has made
the mistake of unduly assisting manufac-
ture, commerce and other activities that
center in cities at the expense of the farm
| The result is neglected system of agri-
culture and the decline of the farming in
tereSt But all these other activities are
founded upon the agricultural growth of
the nation and must continue to depend
upon it. Every manufacturer, every mer-
chant, every business man and every good
citizen is deeply interested in maintaining
the growth and development of our agri-
cultural resources.
1T is most important that our country
should take thought for its future. When
the United States shall have from $780,
100000 to 200,000,000 people they must
be employed they must earn living.
How will their occupations and products
stand in relation to one another Will
there be mutual internal support, or mu-
tual destruction and decay? Who will en-
ploy these millions? Who will buy the
goods they produce? Hosts of idle men in
Great Britain ask for the opportunity to
win bread by work, and there is nothing
for them but the dole of charity. We must
avoid for all time that extremity.
Then Mr.. Hill goes on 10 say the fields
of the country are its real gold mines and
must be protected and used to their best
advantage. There must be no more land
grabbing in the Northwest, and all public
lands given away must be given only after
a very rigid compliance with all of the
provisions of the Homestead law. He pre-
diets the breaking up of the large farms in
the West into small units. He says:
Such close and careful cultivation as
will yield the highest profit an acre can
best be given to land when it is cultivated
in comparatively small farms. 1t takes
more labor to earn the same profit from a
tract too large to be titled thoroughly. Ten
farmers, each cultivating from 40 to 1850
acres at the outside, with the most APP
proved methods, supplemented where nee
eSsary by irrigation, can each earn profit
equal to that taken from two or three
times the same area by slovenly tillage.
Ten farmers instead of one increase the
aggregate volume of trade with the mer-
chants of the community and add in the
same ratio to the general prosperity.
Following unc0nsciously this law. many
of the bonanza wheat farms of earlier days
have been or are being broken up into
smaller holdings. 1t is certain that in every
State farm lands will ultimately be di-
vided and subdivided until each farmer
has only as much as will yield him an
ample reward for his labor and enable him
to support his family in comfort"
Then continues Mr.. Hill
LAS far back as we know anything about
civilization. the cultivation of the soil has
been the first and most important industry
in any thriving State. 1t will always be.
Our agricultural population will compare
| favOrably with any in the world; but it
must be taught to honor its occupation and
| to make that occupation worthy of honor.
Further on deal with the substitution
of new methods of tillage for old, by which
| the average crop return of the country
might be doubled and nearly eight billion
dollars added annually to the nations
wealth AS they learn how this may be
done the farmers of the nation will realize
more fully the dignity, the independence
and the comfort of their calling. Their
children will understand that the farm is
not prison from which they should escape
at the first opportunity, recalling its sur
rOundings only with aversion or contempt,
but the real bulwark of liberty and the
home of happiness.
| I'VE have begun to realize only recently
that farming is to great extent an exact
science The man no longer deserves the
name of farmer who cOnceives of his in
dustry as a scratching of the earth, hit
or-miss scattering of seed, and a harvest
ing of such yield as soil and weather may
permit
Having shown the Importance of the
| farming community to the country. Mr.
| Hill now gets down to the meat of the re-
past he is serving and says
ut is as well assured as any future event
can be that the population of the United
States will be 200,000,000 by about the
middle of the present century, or in less
than so years. Millions of persons now
living will see the 200000,000 people
here and the first question is, How are
they to be fed?
THE food problem has numerous col
lateral issues, but for the sake of simplicity
we may here consider only the matter of
bread Where and how are we to obtain
lOaves enough to feed these coming mil
lions?
THE average yearly consumption of
wheat per capita varies considerably with
seasons and prices, but it rises steadily
with our constantly advancing standard of
comfort. For the last three years it has
been either slightly under or slightly over
seven bushels for bread and seed. Sup
pose that it is six and One-half bushels
per capita. which is certainly within the
mark 1t will then require, unless we are
to fall to a lower scale of living. total
product of 100000 bushels of wheat
for our bread supply if we do not export
any
From 1880 to 1906, inclusive, our crop
averaged 521,738.000 bushels annually.
Twice only in our history have we exceed
ed 700,000,000 bushels. 1t is fair to say
that 650,000,000 bushels is our present
average capacity.
Moreover, possible increase of wheat
production by increasing acreage is limited.
We have no longer a great area of free
public lands. Some wheat will be grown
on reclaimed arid land, though this is most
ly devoted to the raising of fruit and fOd-
der plants. Some lands will be drained
and there are few acres of public land
left on which wheat may be raised. But
denser population makes new demands
upon the soil, and it is more likely on the
whole that wheat acreage will be reduced,
to raise all other food supplies consumed by
200, 100000 persons, than that it will be en-
larged Nothing but a material rise in price
could accomplish this. and we may, per-
haps, assume that a steady and certain
price of 81 or $3.50 bushel would raise,
with better work on the farm, our total an
nual wheat product to 900,000,000 bushels,
which would be so per cent more than the
present average. This is the extreme limit
of probability.
THE country could do no more with
present methods of culture. unless it took
land just as necessary for other purposes
and devoted it to wheat raising. We are
left practically with a shortage of AGO.
900, 900 bushels in our wheat supply. even
| if we consume every grain we raise. This