The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1910-08-13
FARMING AS AN INDUSTRY.

g The new conception of the soil, the new view
of agricultural is the acceptance by man of what
lis every day becoming more apparent as one of
the basic rules Of Nature. For the provision
made for man. support is at first bountiful, then
less plentiful, finally negative. And in order to
live, man finds that he must help Nature. He
discovers that he can not long continue, SO to
speak, 10 pluck without planting; that he must
SOW in order to reap; that the ground like every
hing else is exhausted unless there be replaced
what is taken out. Like virgin mine, the first
provision Of Nature from the ground gives up
ITS returns almost without effort; like mine,
TOO, the surface veins of which have been depict
I'd, the soil responds even more abundantly to
eareful treatment than it did to fortunate ex-
eoitation. The theory of farming is soil pre-
servation; Is forcing Of production upon the
sound idea that, in order to produce, anything
and everything must be fed that to keep the
soil, there must be building of the soil
.s This is the new farming, which is TO revolu-
aionize the South even more thoroughly than it
has been revolutionized by the adoption of the
theory IN practice that the place Of production
il the place of manufacture. The lands of the
South are still rich, but their riches have never
set been fully ascertained. Generations have
Lived without gaining the full heritage of the
soi exactly because the soil itself was too kind.
Now, however, the industrial impulse of the
South has come TO include the impulse for in
SIpktrial--or misunderstanding. The land that
was once treated as inexhaustible store house
Is now being treated as plant, with the exper-
i.nce and the even more bountiful promise that
the ratio of production TO manufacture widens
constantly with equi pment and with care to de-
all.
The result contrary to the future of industry,
viii be the small farm opposed to the large one.
The market for the things that are produced in
4 the ground does not lend itself to control. Com
petition in the business of the soil is preserved
for the simple reason that there never be a
victory of one competitor over the other. And
business men are learning that in the land they
have field from which comparative returns
equal, If they do not exceed, the profits from al
most every other line Of effort. The result IL
4 the scientific farming: the application OF educa
u tion to the needs of the soil the investment IN
y the ground of chemical knowledge; the careful
analysis of results attending crop rotation, on
seed selection, oH plant evolution. The success
full farmer OF to-day studies the markets, watches
the swinging pendulum Of supply and demand
Investigates and understands the condition, the
capacity and the possibilities of his plant as
carefully and as hopefully as the manufacturer
At the close Of one season maps out and crlti-
cises his campaign for the next.
As we have before noted, and as all thinking
men must see, the completion of the present GEN.
sl,s il to mark the swing of immigration South
ward. Lands everywhere South of Mason and
Dixon will increase in value in proportion to
the demand made for them; they will increase
naturally in production in accordance with the
amount Of capital they represent. All over the
South it is being demonstrated that the staples
of cotton and tobacco, even the new industry OF
fruits and truck, by no means mark the limits of
D Southern agricultural possibilities In fact
I they are hmitless. Already it is demonstrated
that, with proper care, the South is no less a
eranary than the West. The Southern farmer is
awake and Southern craftsmanship has reached
the practical policy of instructing him. Insti-
tutes, corn trains, experiment trains, spread the
4 new idea. In every community some new farm.
I - is making brilliant application of theory to
I practice. Intensive farming is something
d much more than a name: it has become an in
dustry.