The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-02-02
OUR LAND HUNGRY
For Good Tillers of the Soil--Back
TO the Lanu!
Back to the land!

uuctlOn IN the East are not NJ ali
realized; that with proper methods
of cultivation, as good results could
be obtained from New York State
land, acre for acre, as any other
State in the Union, and that New
England is hungering for farmers
who know how to develop its soil,
are some of the points made by Geo.
T. Powell, president of the Agricul-
tural Experts Association, who has
been a practical farmer all his life.
Why heed Horace Greeley's man
date, GO West, young man." and
why live in cities when the cost of
living is so high? asks Mr. Powell.
Back to the soil" says he. The
eyes of the wise men of the West are
now turned toward the East, and
every day MIR. Powell receives patches
of letters from that section in which
information is requested concerning
cheap New England land Mr.. Pow
ell can tell some wonder stories about
Eastern land. There was a man, for
instance, who bought farm in
Wayne county. n Y, for which he
paid $4,000 and on which was a neg
lected apple orchard of thirty acres.
The purchaser brought scientific
methods into play. He pruned the
trees, he applied fertilizer and he
sprayed. In October, six months
later, he sold his fine apple crop for
$4,000, an advance of $1,000 over
the purchase price. And there are
many more such-all true. Why
live in cities?
In a recent lecture on economic
agriculture at Columbia University,
Mr.. Powell, whose Office is at No.
East Forty-second street, took for
his subject THE Relation of Agricul-
ture to the Prosperity of a Nation
He sketched the growth of agricul-
ture in this country from the early
days. told how, when the great ter
ritories in the West were opened for
settlement, the young men of the east
left the old farms attracted by the
prospect of obtaining land cheaply
and said:
Great mistakes have been made
in the opening up and giving away
of much of our public domain which
should have been held and protected
for the future needs of our coun-
try.
AT the time when the increasing
wants of great and growing popu
lation are pressing, we are making
the discovery that our natural re-
sources have been wickedly wasted,
and that production is already being
overtaken by consumption. Had we
had the foresight and craftsmanship
of Theodore Roosevelt, seconded by
the conscientious work of Clifford
Pinchot, in the interests of the peo-
pie, following that of Abraham Lin
coin, we should not now have the
present anxiety in relation to our fu-
ture food supplies.
But there is a bright side to the
situation. There has never yet been
presented to the American people a
problem that has not met a success
full solution. AS a result of present
conditions, the causes of which
reach back through a half century,
there is a new awakening and inter-
est in land. There has been a quick
ened appreciation of the safety and
assurance which ownership in lana
gives, of the relationship which a
prosperous agriculture holds to the
general prosperity of our whole
country and of the danger that fol-
lows when the land is neglected"
There is a new interest in the sub
ject of land, says Mr.. Powell, which
arises from the fact that the cost of
tut, Do
such an enormous extent, and with
this interest there is felt the need
of a scientific knowledge of the man
ner in which this land may be cul-
tivated. AS an example of what may
be done with land under proper
methods, Mr. Powell told of some he
owned which he has been engaged
in " building up" by planting clover
on it. By covering it with clover
every year, he is satisfied he has i'm
proved the soil 100 per cent. in less
than ten years.
In his lecture Mr. Powell called
attention to the fact that during
the first half of the past century 81
per cent. of the population lived
in rural villages and on farms.
The farmer then had a home
market for many of his products, ,"
he continued, "and some surplus to
send to the cities. The fertility of
his soil at that time made it possible
for him to buy land, make improve
ments, educate his children, pay
for all these ana leave a comfortable
competence when he died.
Passing over to a later period,
from 1896 to 1908, while there was
an increase of population of "a per
cent, the increase in our surplus
agricultural exports was SO per cent.
During this remarkable period of
growth in agricultural the exports of
our packing house products increas-
ed 40 per cent, hams so per cent.
in pounds and 80 per cent. in value,
pork 121 per cent. in quantity and
$50 per cent, in value, cotton 40 per
cent. in pounds, and, together with