The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1910-04-21


s. far mers are
Prof. w. ]. Spill prospecting
man never before"
That's W h a
we may expect to hear soon. But
Prof. w. ]. Spillman, the depart
ment OF agriculture expert, who
knows as much about American
farming conditions as any man,
says that the American farmer is
not prosperous. All the talk about
rural opulence is but CUFF, bunk,
wind. tommyrot and stuff-and-
nonsense.
The fact is. the average farmer
in the corn belt lives in very
hand-to-mouth fashion. True. he
makes a living, and has paid for
his farm in many cases, but that
is about all. He isn't riding around
in any purring, six-cylinder auto
mobile.
About six men out of every
l5O have become rich at farming"
said Prof. Spillman. THAT is, you
take an average middle western
township about five or six miles
square. You will find in it
about $50 farms. Six are pros
porous and the owners have be-
come wealthy men, and 144 are
poor"
Now, six prosperous farmers
out of every $50 men who are
farming isn't general rural pros
perity. Taking a basis of $50
farms to Prof. Spillman's town
ship, you find the amount of
prosperity to be just 4 per cent.
The other 90 per cent have failed
to pile up any wealth.
The professor has certainly
kicked the props from under this
falls republican campaign argu-
ment. Also, he punches holes in
the plea of the food trust that
the workmanship farmers are
the cause of high food prices.
1t isn't politics that worries
Prof. Spillman, but a matter of
deep concern to everyone, city
jewellers and al. For, it is this
very lack of wealth that is hold
ing back the filling of the middle
western soil as 1t ought to BIO till
ed. And unless this land is farm
ed properly and that soon, there is
going to be real scarcity of food
"The wheat and corn belts have
been under cultivation now for
approximately so years." said
Prof. Spillmaf. "In all that time
most of the farmers have been
exploiting the soil. They have
taken away all the soil would yield
and have put nothing back. They
have literally mined out the val
liable, growth-nurturing miner
ais"
Just how far this mining proc
ess can go under unscientific
farming is shown in the last an
nual year book of the depart
ment.
Figuring It up in pounds, an
acre of corn, yielding 100 bushels
to the acre, takes, fodder and all,
from the soil in one season 14S
pounds of nitrogen, 23 pounds of
and II pounds of po-
tassium. At 15 cents per pound,
this nitrogen is worth s22.20, at
IL cents per pound the phosphor-
Gus is worth SAFE and the potas-
SUM, at 6 cents, is worth $4.26.
In other words, the unscientific
farmers, with his corn crop, has
reduced the actual value of his
acre of ground $29.22.
Other crops are even greater
drains upon fertility, which is
value. A full crop of alfalfa cuts
1854 from an acres value. Clo->
yer sucks up 1880 worth of
plant food. A yield of 900 bush
els of apples on an acre of
ground takes out $25.O2 from the
soils value.
"A half century of mining the
SOIL" said Prof. Spillman, "has re-
duced its fertility to a point where
we must change our methods If
we are to have crops of any size.
The thing to do is to restore the
wealth to the soil by scientific
farming.
at is here we are met with
the fact that the body Of farmers
in the wheat and corn belts have
not the necessary capital to put
scientific farming into operation.
Cattle are needed to restore the
stolen fertility, and the farmers
haven't the money to buy stock.
THAT the farmer must have
capital is thing city people do
not understand. I get letters
from many business men saying
they are intending to take up
farming, and asking my advice.
IL they haven't sufficient capital 1
usually advise against It. Farm
Ing Is becoming more and more
one of the professions, and It
needs brains and money to make
1t pay.
Somebody divided men into
three classes: First, those men
who do things before their fell
lows even see the necessity of SO
doing. Such men are always lead
ers In whatever business they
may take up. The second, and
by far the largest class. are those
men who are able to do what they
are told. These men are efficient
and they get along all right. The
third are deficients-men who