The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1910-12-28

paralyzed, and the nation dependent
upon foreign countries for its FOOD sup
ply-that is the condition threatening
us today, the students Of economies
declare. impossible? No, at all.
Several European countries already
have had that same situation to face,
and some are wrestling with it today
In spite of the vast farming area OF
this country and the comparatively
sparse population per square mile,
there is certain promise OF national
starvation, so far as home production
is concerned, unless radical change
is effected in American farming meth
DDS.
The evil that menaces agriculture
and it's kindred industries-that
threatens the nations source OF bread
and butter and beefsteak-is the ten
ant farmer. He it is that is squeez-
ing the fertility from the soil, robbing
the land of it's power to produce, and
try exhausted barren and dead. He
has marched half way across Ameri-
ca in the wake OF the homeseeker and
the home maker. Where he has tar
ried he has left blight and desolation.
And he is marching on.
Every Ten Farms Four Tenants.
Four out of every ten farms in this
country today are occupied by tenant
farmers; a small number compared to
the tenant populations of some foreign
countries in the past, but the number
is increasing rapidly, and it already is
sufficient to make you feel its weight
in the cost and quality of your bread
and meat.
For several years past the yield per
acre of the agricultural products Of
this country has remained practical
~ stationary, whereas, with recent
revolutionary improvements in farm
ing methods and farm machinery, it
should have increased at least Is per
cent. The tenant farmer is to blame.
For the past few years there has been
a question whether the agricultural
products of this country would show
any surplus for export, while Denmark
which was once tenant ridden, pro-
duces an annual surplus of SO an acre.
The tenant farmer is to blame.
To grasp the full import of the havoc
being wrought by the tenant farmer
it Is necessary to understand some.
thing of his methods and their effect
upon the land, and how these methods
in time affect the nations food sup
ply. Ruthless robbery of the soils
fertility, Indifference to the future, a
penny wise and pound foolish policy
those characterize the tenant farm
er's practices. He is migratory-an
agricultural vagabond. He stops to-
day only long enough to wrest crop
from the abused earth, hastily harvest
it and then move on to repeat the pro-
cess in a newer and more promising
spot. What conditions he leaves be-
hind he neither knows nor cares. He
farms in chosen locality today, to-
morrow he is gone; and that locality
can be taken care of by someone else.
His one object is to wiring from the
tortured land the limit OF its strength
and then to abandon it without restOr-
ing a jot of the plant food he has TAX
en- away.
The enduring productivity of the soil
depends upon methods of restoration
and conservation. These are effected
by fertilization or the rotation OF
crops, or both. Land. sOwn to the same
crops year after year without being
restored by natural or artificial meth
DDS in harmony with natural laws,
will not 80 on producing forever. On
the contrary, the life of farm land
repeatedly sown to the same crops
and without fertilization, is only about
ten years.
Dead Land in the Tenants Wake.
Do you realize what that means?
Ten years of exhaustive cropping by
successive tenant farmers may leave
a section of what was virgin land q
dead and barren waste, incapable OF
supporting a human life until it has
been put through a long and intelli-
gent course of "doctoring." Ten years
and the tenant farmer has made por-
ton of the nations agricultural area
incapable of producing food sufficient
for himself, not to mention the city
resident, who is dependent upon sur
plus production.
In the northern and eastern states
today are thousands OF abandoned
farms that have been threShed to eX-
hauStion. either by tenant farmers o.
by equally unintelligent and careless
owners. The surprising depth and fer
tility of the soil OF the middle west
have delayed like condition in the