The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1910-09-16
LISTEN TO SPEECH OF SECRE-
TARY OF AGRICULTURE
WILSON.
SENATOR BEvER|CE, |NO|ANA
j. j. Hill and Many Others-No Sen
sational Features at Yet Crop
Out.

made by w. w. Finley, Senator Bev-
eridge of Indiana, F. L. McVey, j.
B. White and Secretary of Agricul-
ture James Wilson of Iowa. There
were no sensational features at to-
days gathering.
Secretary Wilson said in part:
"The most important feature of
farm conservation is the soil. The
farmer prospers while the soil re
spends to his work and yields good
crops; he ceases to do we'll when the
soil refuses to respond to his labor.
''The people of the older nations
take care of soil fertility as a matter
of prime necessity and long ago as
certained the proper succession of
crops, their relation to the soil, and
the feeding of MAI and animals.
They knew the soil must be fed and
the proper physical conditions to
maintain, and learned from exper-
fence how to do it. They learned
hat the decaying plant returned to
the soil was the best food the grow
ing plant could have. They became
aware that the removal of crops
from the farm resulted in soil deter.
ioration unless the equivalent was
returned from some source. An
cient history tells us that the legume
was used in relation before Hellrie.
gel discovered its office in fixing nj
trogen in the soil; the value of bones
was known as a fertilizer before
Liebig gave us their analysis. The
office of sulphuric acid was known
in making superphosphate through
which the husbandman got the i'm
mediate 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 recently 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 old
er refused to yield abundantly and
is one Of the prime auses of farm
desertion that is now attracting SO
much attention.
Manufacturers increased and pros
pered greatly during the last half
century because food vas cheaper in
II 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 older settlements
were robbed and neglected in the
east and in the south; they had lit
tie o no attention. Railways We're
pushed into the Mississippi Valley
where the %glaciated soils were 50
rich, 80 easily cultivated, and sup.
posed to be inexhaustible. The gov
eminent policy of giving farms to
the people has exhausted the supply
in the regions where rainfall usually
assured good crops. The mountain
ranges hold the snow and some val
ley lands r being irrigated which
yield abundantly, but only a small
per cent of land west of the one hun.
dredth meridian is being irrigated
So we have found our limitations
Bread and meat are SO dear that EN-
ployers Of labor are under the ne
cessity Of increasing compensation
that people may live.
"Since the Civil War heavy ex
p%ortations from the farm have paiC
foreign debts and kept the balance o
trade in u favor. Expectation!
from the farm are steadily falling
of, both Of meats and bread stuffs
We grow more crops every year blu
not enough to feed our increasing
population and keep up our exports
1.-The federal government Is OK
pending large sums to irrigate NOR
land which is wise. but the amour
ofswater 'impounded is small ,compar
ed With the volume that lows Il
waste Tn . recent visit to tn
mountain states I saw that the mos
advaneed localities are every yea
making more reservoirs TO hold win
ter md spring lows OF water that &,
freeuf mans restraint to the ocean
The'nsson, the states and private en-
tearffsesi have ample folds in whicl
tosssoSk toward sreater crop produc
tio1 u this direction" "
Wien The problem Of trusts bsss,
to- grow several years ago. thor
AROSE the problem OF properly taxinl
then: now that the problem Of con
ssrEinp our national resources hal