The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-03-24
ERA OF CHEAP MEAT
 IS GONE FOREVER Food Will Cost More As the
 Years Go By DR. DAVENPORT WRITES says Only Relief Is Cheaper Food or Less Of It-Even the Lengthening of Life Contributes to the
 Higher Prices
DR. DAVENPORT WRITE'

Bread and meat will never be lower than they are now; they will soon go higher.
 These are the conclusion of Dr. Eugene Davenport. dean of the College of Agrl- culture of the University of Illinois. In his article In the April issue of Good Housekeeping Magazine he says:
 We have skinned the cream Of the fertility eff most of our lands. Great stretches al country have already been abandoned and all lands that have been farmed Tor a half century are declining in production except the few that have been feItiiized at the expense of others near by. No lands are good enough 10 endure a quarter of a century Of eA- elusive grain farming without marked de- crease of yield. One field at the uniVer- sity of Illinois has raised corn success slvely 90 years. and 1t has declined Ill yield On the average a bushel year, though h was superior land at the be- eInning md was too rich ever to wear out
 "Someone las said that the time has come when to fire a cannon represents the cost of n college education and to build a. battleship costs a university. These con- alterations will one day amend public pol icies but 1t will only increase the de- mand fer bread, and now that we are checking the agencies of human destruc- ton, we must understand what it will mean In population. Every life saved and every infanc preserved adds not only to numbers but to the average length of human liie and correspondingly to the demand for food.
 q cannot see, therefore, any lasting relief from the prospect of permanent high prices for food. Improved methods of production will defer the day and soften its coming, and reduced wages, consequent upon a dense population, will result in Q forced demand for a lessened amount and a cheaper kind of food for tie masses. and this, more than all other causes, Will keep prices in check. But back Of it all lies the fact of the pressure of reputation and the lessening fertility that no race yet has ever stood against nor can stand against except by new and permanent methods of agriculture such as have not yet been generally established.
 We cannot afford to live in fools paradise in this matter. The day of creap n eat is over, and that of cheap white bread is passing, and unless we can speedily establish more permanent agriculture than has ever yet been es- tablisheo. then will prices not only go higher, but the most of men will be forced to subsist on the cheaper foods. This for sociological reasons, as well as for considerations of humanity, is em- inontly unoesira ble. The era of high priced food is fairly upon us in spite of our 'boundiess CD natural resources and our inexhaustible fertility and the most that We can do is to retard the speed and soften the hardship of it's coming by a timely and scientific attention to our az riculture.
 Much is expected through reclamation Of arid regions by irrigation. but the areas are relatively small, probably all told not exceeding that of Illinois, and the great staple grains, grasses and meats will al- ways he raised on non-irrigated lands. These are largely occupied already. The largest relief comes in breaking up the range for grain farming, but this means the last of cheap meat. and it means neither permanent food supply nor a final reduction in price. The permanent food supply is attainable only by perma- n.,,it systems of agriculture that increase instead O; decreasing fertility. and even these do not prevent population from ovorialSing production. In the end high prices for food are inevitable, and 1t looks as if we had fairly started on the road. and if that is so the only financial relief is cheaper food or less of it.
 "I am in all things an optimst, but we cannot afford to close our eyes to very evident fleets. We have lived as have no orher people In a superabundance of food. That time ia over. I expect fluctuations In prices; but for the reasons outlined believe that the era of cheap food is past forever.'
 '