The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-10-31
WHAT WE MUST DO TO BE FED.

Under this heading President James
]. Hill, the great railway magnate,
noints out in an article in the Worlds
Work for November the need OF a
reimbursement of agriculture In the
United States to the food require
ments of a great and growing popu-
lation. Small farms, intensively and
scientifically cultivated, are his rem
edy for the evils that he foresees IL
population continues to Increase IN
greater ratio than the means of sub
sistence. as seems to him inevitable.
Mr.. Hill las it down as maxim
that Gland without population is VIII
derness, and population without land
is a mob" The United states has
many social, political and economic
questions, some old, some new, to set
tie in the near future; but Mr.. Hill
holds that none are so fundar. entail as
the true relation OF the land to the
national life. The first act in the
progress of any civilization is to pro-
vide homes for ,those who desire to
sit under their own vine and fig tree,
Mr.. Fill makes the charge that 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 neglect
ed system of agriculture, and the de-
cline of the farming interest In
present day attempts to alleviate by
legislation the distress that periodic
ally falls upon the poorer people OF
the cities. he sees only ssociaiistic
nostrums.' And he points to the
fact that Ghosts of idle men in Great
Britain ask for the opportunity 70 win
bread by work, and there is nothing
for them but the dole of charity with
the conclusion I'VE must avoid for
all time that extremity
Censure of the existing national lant
policy is not wanting from Mr.. Hills
article He says on this point.
while we are spending great sums
to transform worthless lands int
orchards and gardens By the work o
reclamation service, we still retain al
to other areas the land-laws unde
which for so many years the grea
heritage of the people has been pass
ing so largely into unworthy hands
For the sake Of our national future
for the sake of the coming million
who will be helpless unless each cal
be furnished with a piece of tillabl
land as a defense against misfortune
we should see that the speculatiy
abuses which these lands have foster
ed are brought to an end. 1t Shout
not be possible to obtain land of an
kind anywhere in the United State
henceforth except by complying wit
all the terms of the homestead law.
BY the substitution of new method
of tillage for old, Mr.. Hill says, tn
average crop return OF the countr
might be doubled and nearly $4,000
100000 added annually to the cour
try's wealth. If he could have hi
way he would build couple of wa
ships a year less and take the $4,000
600 or $6,000000 a year thus save
and start at least 1000 agriculture
schools in the United States at $500
year each, in the shape of mode
farms. concerning which he writes:
mis- model Iafm would De Slmpl
tract of land conforming in siz
soil treatment, crop selection and r
tation, and methods of cultivation I
modern agricultural methods. It's pu
pose would be to furnish to all il
neighborhood working model ft
common instruction. Cultivatin
perhaps from forty to sixty acres,
could exhibit on that area the a
vantages of thorough tillage which I'll
small farm makes possible; of see
specially chosen and tested by expe
iment at agricultural college farms
of proper fertilization, stock raisin
alienation of crops and the who
scientific and improved system {