The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1909-11-13

ing which year over 100000 bushels
were brought into the country, we
find that the average was the astonish-
ingly low figure of 464,174 bushels. Evil
IDENTIFY there is something in knowing
where to find and how to use statis-
tics with which to bolster up ones
claims, no matter how absurd they
may be when viewed from the stand
point of reasonRbleness. Mr.. Hills
greatest error, however, lies in his US
ing the one staple, wheat, as a basis
for his argument. He should remem-
Der that the needs of the American
people for food are satisfied by many
things other than wheat and flour, and
that this fact is and mas been increas-
ingly true as we have advanced in
civilization.
According to Mr.. Hill there is but
one method by means of which the
United States can be saved from suf-
fering the direful effects which are
bound to result from his threatened
shortage of foodstuffs, and that is the
more intensive cultivation of the soil.
At the present time the American far
mer produces but fourteen bushels of
wheat per acre, while the French pro-
duce twenty and the Germans about
twenty-eight. The American farmer
should be taught how to use his lands
more advantageously, for, as Mr. Hill
states, there is scarcely limit to the
value which an acre of ground may be
made to produce. Right methods of
| farming are not complicated and are
within the reach of the modest means.
| They include a study of soils and
| careful rotation of crops, intelligent
fertilizing and a careful selection of
grain used for seed. The fruit farm
er, the truck gardener, every cultivator
of the soil, who has specialized his
work, has learned the value of these
simple principles. The problem is,
how to impress it upon the thirty mill
lion or more such persons who live on
the land and till it," To do this he
would have the national government
y
agricultural county. "There should be
trained man to each farm OF, say,
eighty acres, and a general superin-
tendent, a thoroughly trained agricul-
turist, to manage three or four coun-
ties and visit different farms. All
such farms in a State might be put
under the general supervision of the
( agricultural college in that State as a
part of it's experimental work If a
person were in doubt regarding any,
thing in connection with his farm, he
could visit the model farm and see
with his own eyes what he ought to
have done and what he could do the
next time Or if it were found impos-
sible to follow out the scheme of the
model farms, the State might profit
ably employ a considerable number OF
men, educated in practical agricul-
ture; supply them with seed selected
for quality; send them out to the
farms, and have each farmer put in a
agents, sowing and tilling these &C
cording to their instructions. The
great increase in both the quantity
and the quality of the yield would be
a convincing education" In short,
everything must be done to encourage
the man to go onto the farm, and to
stay there. The tiller of the soil
must be considered first in all our
policies because he is the keystone OF
the national arch. The farmers of
the country must save it in the future,
just as they have built its greatness
in the past