The Wenatchee daily world. [volume] (Wenatchee, Wash.) 1905-1971, 1910-09-07

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criticism upon any individual. 1t is
merely one more proof of the excess
sive cost of government work.
THE tariff in some respects is a
great enemy of conservation. What
ever we may think of it as q general
industrial policy, everyone can see
that, by excluding the raw products
of other countries, it throws the en-
tire burden of their consumption
upon our own resources and thus ex-
hausts them unnecessarily. The tariff
on forest products cuts down our own
forests, a tariff on coal depletes our
mines, a tariff on any raw material
forbids the conservation of similar
natural resources here"
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson on
Farm Conservation
THE most important feature of
farmer prospers while the soil re-
spends to his work and yields good
crops; he ceases to do well when the
soil refuses to respond to his labor.
The people of the older nations
take care of soil fertility as matter
of prime necessity, and long ago as
certained the proper succession of
crops, their relation to the soil, and
the feeding of man and animals.
They knew the soil must be fed and
the proper physical conditions to
maintain, and learned from expert
ence how to do it. They learned that
the decaying plant returned to the
soil was the best food the growing
plant could have They became
aware that the removal of crops from
the farm resulted in soil deteriora-
ton unless the equivalent was re-
turned from some source. Ancient
history tells us that the legume was
used in relation before Hellriegel
discovered its office in fixing nitro
gen in the soil; the value of bones
was known as fertilizer before
Liebig gave us their analysis. The
office of sulphuric acid was known
in making superphosphate through
which the husbandman got the imme-
date benefit of the fertilizers in the
bones.
During the short history of our
country we have had new soils to
draw upon when exhaustion resulted
from the robbing process and much
of the nations prosperity is the
equivalent of what the soil has lost.
Our people have been we'll fed and
until reacently they have been cheap
ly fed. This has been due in part no
doubt to the occupancy of land easily
obtainable as soon as the older re-
fused to yield abundantly. and is one
of the prime causes of farm deser-
ton that is now attracting so much
attention.
Manufactures increased and pros
pered greatly during the last half
century because food was cheaper in
our country than in any one with
which We competed. Food is cheap
no longer. Population has increased
faster than production from the soil.
A new soil given to all who desired
was the basis of our past prosperity.
The soils of our older settlements
were robbed and neglected in the
east and in the south; they had little
or no attention. Railways were
pushed into the. Mississippi valley
where the glaciated soils were SO
rich, so easily cultivated, and sup
posed to be inexhaustible. The gov
errment policy of giving farms to
the people has exhausted the supply
in the regions where rainfall usually
assures good crops. The mountain
ranges hold the snow and some val
ley lands are being irrigated which
yield abundantly, but only a small
per cent of land west of the one
hundredth meridian is being irri-
gated. So we have found our limita-
lions. Bread and meat are so dear
that employers of labor are under
the necessity of increasing compen-
sation that people may live.
"Since the Civil war heavy ex-
portations from the farm have paid
foreign debts and kept the balance
of trade in our favor. Expectations
from the farm are steadily falling
off. both of meats and breadstuffs.
We grow more crops every year, but
not enough to feed our increasing
population and keep up our exports.
1.-The most important farm conser-
walton is undoubtedly the prepara-
ton of farm youth for better farm
MANAGEMENT. We have inherited our
system Of education that looked to
| the farm for the best material to re-
inforce the professions and the indus
tries. Education has, therefore, pre-
pared young people for everything
but farm life. The American con-
gress saw this half century ago
and provided for agricultural colleges
| in all the states; these colleges have
grown. and are preparing teachers,
honoful task In the nature of