The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-12-12

= - WIN
Change Twenty Million Acres Of Unused
Lands Into Seven Billion Dollars Worth
of Fertile, Productive Farm Lands.
(By the Associated Press.)
Chicago, Dee. declaring that the
adoption by the Federal Government of a
practical reclamation by-drainage policy
would change 10000, 900 acres Of now I'M
used wet lands into 81 .OOO, OOO, 600 worth Of
enormously fertile and highly productive
farm lands, reduce the cost of living to
every family in the United States, and
almost double the agricultural M
OF the country, Hon. Hunter c. Leake, of
New Orleans, in an address today urged
the National Irrigation Congress to ask
the Federal Government to adopt a drain
age policy that in its scope will ignore
State lines and the barrier heretofore i'm
posed by States Rights.
The purchase Of the Louisiana terri
tory" said Mr.. Lcake, was the best stroke
of diplomacy in the history Of the United
states. The drainage Of the 20, OOO, 600 acres
Of enormously fertile low lands in the
country will inevitably prove the greatest,
stroke ever credited to the United States.
Cost Of reclamation should not average
more than $40 an acre Available to the
pillow, these drained acres will be worth.
ut low valuation, 500 each. Here alone
is a profit of 1000 per cent.
This 1000 per cent is only the initial
and smaller profit to accrue. There is no
means by which the broad ramifcations
of such a developed asset may be traced
to finality, or the benefits to be derived
from an augmented food supply, an aug
mented commerce and an augmented ma
tlonal wealth may be calculated.
There is no other project on earth that
offers such a sure and such a splendid
cash profit OF capital invested. or such
the advancing cost of food, the cause Of
which is a relative increase in demand over
production.
Some years ago two-thirds of the coun-
try's population engaged in agricultural
pursuits. Today only one-third Of the
country's population is so engaged. Yet
agriculture, the history of which is the
history of man in his most primitive and
most enduring form. is just as honorable
a calling as when Cinctnnatus was twice
called from the pillow to the highest Offices
in the State
Describing the effect on the farmer OF
the telephone, the railroad and other mod
ern inventions. Mr.. Leake said:
The farmer now walks in the bright
light of knowledge, whereas he formerly
stumbled in the dim light of experience
alone.
The son of the soil now demands the
same relative return from his brain. his
education and his labor that men in other
walks Of life enjoy. Under the old order
OF things he cannot get it.
"A few years ago, to encourage the far
mer. the Federal Government found it ne
cessary to place water on the arid lands
of the West where men and women who
desired to engage in scientific agricultural
pursuits might build and develop their
homes. These lands have been taken up
as rapidly as irrigated. and have become
very valuable. and other fertile low cost
farms by the tens of thousands are needed.
ICllrf1 fl pfoC nIi in nr0rr ~ro~ {kn
requirements of the modern educated far
mer can now only be obtained through
the opening up of the &C. 90. 900 acres Of
allnr'al lands. consequently the drainage
attention of the States in which they lie.
but eff the Federal Government as we'll
since the permanent prosperity Of the ma
I on net only depends upon the volume and
stab lily of the food supply but on Il low
average cost of production. both Of which
are obtainable only under the most IA
eorable conditions of SOL. of climate and
Of convenience which those remaining low
Lands alone can supply. Such lands in
Nitc intensive cultivation. and intensive
cultivation of the 1o.G0,000 acres of rich
est SOL in the country viii not only in
crease. relatively and actually. the nations
feed supply. but it will decrease. rela-
lively and actually. the average cost of
food to every family ii every section of
the country.
Our experience in Louisiana. where re-
ciamat'on work is progressing rapidly and
filtifel1 SHfFfSSlFoS. SHOWS c0nciuS S6iV
that the ,O.IaD.Go0 acres of low lands in
the country can he recla med at relatively
law cost and made enormously productive
within q period of a very few wears. Thus
far about 300. 900 of the a,G1o. coo acres OF
wet lands IN Louisiana have been re-
claimed. and the cultiyatore arc fast grow
ing ricl. One farnler-A. Y. Smith. who
balls from Marshall. M'ch.. has cleared
100000 III four years from the products
OF his reclaimed farm near Lockport, La.
lie IS merely q tyre.
tIanlSilnn 4 X acf1 lin frY. wet lands
without Federal aid. rot because Federal
aid is not desired. bet because Il has not
been available. The State has authorized
the creation of drainage districts and the
sale of drainage bends. aga nst which 81
annual acreage tax on the improved land