Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1909-09-16
BETTER FARMING.

BETTER FARMING.
Before the American Bankers AS
ISOLATION James J. Hill expressed
again his belief in the urgent need of
farming less and farming better.
That part of Mr.. Hills address that
deals with this subject is of partic-
ular interest:
What we must come, to-and the
signs Of the times indicate that we
cannot make head in that direction
too rapidly-is the smaller farm,
with a more intensive agriculture.
We support in round numbers, ninety
millions of people on three million
square miles of land. We should be
able to support $50 per square mile
as easily as 80; and then we should
have but a fraction of the density
of population of Denmark, with 167
inhabitants per square mile, Holland
with 448, or our own state of Rhode
Island with 407 in 1900. But the ed
ucation of whole people in right
methods of tillage is a stupendous7
task. It took England nearly fifty
years to do this, with powerful agen-
cies at command and with a control
over her farmers through leasehold
conditions that no one in this coun-
try possesses. She has raised her av-
erage wheat yield from IL and Is to
upwards of 30 bushels per acre. If
It should take us fifty years, we
would by that time probably have
doubled our population also, and
barely kept pace with our necessities.
But we have not yet accomplished
the mere preliminaries of such pro-
cess.
Not only have we not begun, ex-
cept In few cases SO rare that they
furnish striking illustrations for mag
azine articles and experiment station
bulletins, to mend our farm methods,
but the machinery by which the great
body of farmers may be reached
as they must be reached If any
change worth considering is to be
brought about-has not yet been de-
termined upon. While we do consid-
cradle for the boys and girls who at
tend them through our more than
threescore agricultural colleges, but
little impression is made upon the
bulk of all the people engaged in
farming. Here are some extracts
from a letter written recently by an
Intelligent farmer for publication:
)" 81 don't think one-half of one per
cent of the farmers of the state are
In touch with the state agricultural
college and experiment station. It
is practically unknown to the mass of
the farmers" That is true every
where. There were more than TO-
100000 people at work on the farms
Of this country in 1900; and it needs
big school and big teaching force
to take them all in.
That Is what we have to do. There
are between 100000 and 1000, 900
farms in the United States today.
Their annual product of over $1,000
100000 could be doubled without add
ing anything to the labor or money
now expended. The average wheat
yield of the country is now about
fourteen bushels per acre in good
years. The same land might produce
thirty bushels if properly cultivated.
The average cotton yield is about
tour-tenths of a bale per acre, and
possibly four times that amount
could be raised as easily. The same
holds true of the whole list of farm
products. The farmer has been dis
eouraged by seeing every other in
dustry preferred to his. A false pol
ICY OF stimulating these by legislative
favors has naturally tended to tempt
the intelligent, energetic and ambit-
1ous into other occupations.
While much praise is due to what
Is now being done, and we'll done,
BY the Agricultural Experiment Sta
tons and colleges, by the department
on agriculture and by farmers insti-
7 tutes and other agencies, the job is
too big for them. When we. set out
TO educate the children in the public
sch ools, we do not establish one or
q SwO large ones in each state and ex-
pect them to go there. The farmer is
almost as numerous, as much in need
of instruction and as unable9to leave
home in search Of it or to absorb It
through literary channels as the
child. The education must be taken
70 him. II all the graduates of all
The agricultural colleges were sent
out as missionaries to the farm, there
would not be enough Of them to do
The work But 1t Is the sort Of work
In which every state should engage
without delay. %5,..ss -, -$s3se3. y
What has to be taught is not ab-
4 struse. While high-grade farming
can furnish employment for the best
intelligence, instruction in few SIM
pie subjects will enable the ordinary
farmer to double his product. He
needs to be taught how to prepare
sS a:,sst $500 / n 34 4