Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-09-29
THE ATLANTA EEwEKIY
SAYS SCIENTIFIC FARMING
is SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS

uses up horses. And this is true not only
in this but in the older COUNTRIES as well.
All Ireland for example, except Dublin
and Belfast, has lost population in the
last ten years. as also has enarly all of
Wales and Scotland
Il regard it as important that You
S uld understand as clearly as possible
the conditions that haYe caused this
worldwide movement from the farm
the city, as only in this way shall we
be able to foresee and describe the con-
ditions that will cause and are even
nov causing a return flow or movement
back toward the land The movement
downward began with the use of i'm
proved machinery, or the application OF
science to the operations of manufac-
turing and distributing the things nec>
essary for the supply of our ever-in-
creasing human wants. Z 1t has increas-
ed in proportion to the success OF the
inventions and discoveries.
The organization of labor followed
logically the organization of capital
and gave US one of the greatest and
most difficult of modern problems, that
of the labor unions.
THE RAILROAD PROBLEM.
I'm the factory we no longer aim to
supply local demands, but state, Inter
For this there must be transportation
and. therefore, we have a railroad prob
lem closely intertwined with the labor
problem, intimately connected with the
whole process Of manufacturing and dis.
tribution. The products of these great
factories must be used by consumers
Living at long distance. Hence we
have the problem of distribution, or the
problem of the middleman, and all the
direct results of the application Of
science to industry, Since the world be-
gan the like has never been seen before.
With corn ct from 20 to rs cents,
wheat so cents oats Is cents, the man
ufacturer could afford to pay higher
wages than the farmer and give shorter
hours. The city could furnish paved
streets, lights, amusement, society,"
the joy of living. Is it any wonder
that the farm boys and girls fled to the
cities? The farm Itself finally began
to use improved machinery. The farm
er used more horses, better tools, and
grew more crops with less than half the
labor. All this was natural, logical, in
evitable. The older farming sections ~
not nave so dense a population as OF
old simply because they do not need IT
when farming under the old conditions.
They could not use it with profit when
they had to compete with town wages
ard town hours
What then followed? Inevitably,
soil impoverishment The 18th century
farmer was, speaking generally, no
farmer at all, but a miner, a soil rob-
Der. The 18th century farmer sold the
stored fertility of ages at the bare cost
of mining it. With his gang pillow ana
four to eight section harrow he could
do more soil robbIng in five years than
his grandfather could in a whole life
time. b.
I'VE are now nearing point where we
will need practically all our grains 20
provide for the wants of our own popula-
ton. Our export of corn is merely a
dribble; in our last census year, $1,000 900
bushels less than the average ten years
before Our exports of meats and
dairy products have shrunlz in ten years
over Is per cent. We sent abroad last
year only about one-third the numbert of
cattle we sent ten years ago. There is
not the slightest indication that this de-
cline will be checked. If checked at all,
it will be but temporarily, due to an in
dustrial crisis. Were 1t not for the over
100000 worth of cotton we send