The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-12-23
FOOD IS SCARCE.
President Waters, of X. s. A. C.
Sounds Note of Warming.
In Address Before Kansas City,
Kan., Mercantile Club.
NOW FACING A CRISIS.
People Must Eat Less or Pro-
duce More, He Says.
There Is No Longer a Great
West to Draw Upon.


Kansas City, Kan. Dec. 23.-President
Henry J. Waters of the Kansas State
Agricultural college, was the speaker
at the second of the series of monthly
dinners given by the Mercantile club
of this city. Mr.. Waters subject was:
"A Shortage in the National Food Sup
ply" Before he began his address the
club, on the motion of A. L. Berger,
adopted resolutions of respect to the
memory of Senator William A. Harris.
President Waters reviewed in his adj
dress the important part agriculture
has played in the development of the
world, and paid especial attention to
the work the agricultural colleges are
today doing. He said in part:
''Give Us Today Our Daily Bread"
Give us today our daily bread was
the petition of the ancients, and con-
tinued to be the prayer of all countries
until the broad prairies OF the MISSISSIPPI
pi valley were placed under the pillow.
1t used to require three hours of the
labor of the one man to produce a
bushel of wheat by the old methods of
threShing. Now it takes less than ten
minutes. A few years ago a sugges-
crops was considered an insult, but
now, in spite of all our bumper crops,
tn cry of all the markets is for more
food.
We are now up to our present pro-
ductiou of human food. We must either
eat less in the future or produce more
food. The question is more than local;
it has resolved itself into the question
of the salvation of cur government. We
will not have great class distinction
H. lob L. Ii
dinner pail essentially as good food as
the mayor of the town or the foreman.
We cannot have two men in the same
pew, If one is eating white bread and
meat, and the other existing on black
bread and coffee.
Demand for Land Is Great.
Another crisis we must face in the
great food problem is the demand for
land, upon which to produce. In the
days when this western country
abounded in rolling prairies, to be had
for the asking, it used to be cheaper
Now there is no Great West left; we
must face the crisis. We cannot revo-
lutionize agriculture by machinery. That
has been done already. The situation
must be met by an enlightened hus-
bandman. For the first time in history.
the importance of agriculture, is being
realized. ,--.z = -
I'VE have doubled our products in
the last 20 years, but we have not in
creased our amount per acre. We are
year, and in 80 years We will double
our population at that rate. We are
not farming seriously, nor are We max
ing our lands produce in the stricteSt
sense of the word. BY actual tests dur
ing the past seven years the agricul-
tural colleges over the land have DEM
onstrated that by selecting seed wheat,
it Is possible to increase the preduc-
ton five bushels to the acre. Yet five
years ago no one thought of plant
as having pedigree. The farmers were
very particular about the pedigree of
their horses. hogs. sheep, and the young
men who married their daughters, but
they hooted at the idea CT a plant ,
having pedigree.
Much of Farms Products Wasted.
Another thing that the farmer must
learn is the value of the products vast
ed on the ordinary farm. Why, there
is enough food wasted every year on
the Kansas farms in the shape of vast
ed corn stalks, the money value OF
which would send every farmers child
In the state of Kansas to the agricul-
tural college One million dollars year
Is wasted III Kansas in dead hogs, be-
cause the farmers fail to inoculate them
against cholera. The great mineral
wealth of Kansas is in the plant food
contained in the soil. Every farmer is
a miner He is in a mining business
that is permanent. and if he farms in
diligently the mines needs not be ex-
hausted.
1.-The mission of the agricultural col
lege is to scatter this intelligence.
President Sherman of Cornell univer-
sity marks the founding of the agricul-
tural colleges in America as the third
greatest epoch in the history of the
systems of the world. The
farmers for long time took little in
terest in the work of such colleges, but
now they consult with them every day.
The colleges have made agriculture
teachable. They have made it possible
to learn farming in college as well as
between the pillow handles.
Before we can make this education
universal we must put 1t in the high
schools and we must place high schools
in the rural districts in reach of every
boy and girl whether rich or poor. We
must also place the study of agricul-
ture and domestic economy in the grade
and district schools in order to have it
reach everybody. Not only must we
teach the girls to cook and sew, but-we
must also instill them with the ideas of /
home building"