The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1911-09-07
MAKING TWO BLADES GROW
Where But One Grew Before-That is
the Problem Which Now Con-
fronts the People of
this Country.

How long will it be before the
United States will have to import
grain?
"A good many years-many gen.
eratiOnS,' is the answer the average
man would give to this question.
But does that answer come close to
the truth? We will see. Last year
the farmers of this country produced
more than 5000, 100000 bushels of
corn but less than per cent of it
was exported. The wheat yield was
about 65O,000,000 bushels and less
than 10 per cent was sent out of the
country.
What will happen to us when our
population reaches $50, 100000 peo-
pie? That time is not far away. By
the year 1850 there will be that
many people in the country.
Will we raise enough ceareals to
supply our demands 40 years from
now? Not unless something is done
to increase our acreage and to make
our land now under cultivation more
fertile, because practically all the
public lands in the country are occu-
pied and nothing now remains but to
encroach upon the Great American
Desert"
We now have in the United States
about 100000 farms, averaging
something less than 100 acres each,
and yet but 81 per cent of our land
area is in improved farms and but Is
per cent Of it is cropped yearly. We
raise about 100000 acres of
wheat annually and the average crop
for the past 40 years has been less
than 8 bushels per acre. The aver
age wheat crop in England is more
than 81 bushels per acre. We cult
vate almost 1OO,00O,000 acres of
corn yearly, with an average yield of
only 25 bushels per acre and 29, 00O,-
600 acres of oats yielding less than
81 bushels per acre.
How can production be made to
keep pace with consumption? By
making two blades of grass grow
where but one grew before"
Soil fertility must be brought back.
Rotation, leguminous crops, deep
blowing, manure fertilizers, moist
ure conservation by suitable methods
of cultivation, checking of erosion
these will increase our yields of farm
crops. Through the introduction of
scientific methods the Eastern States,
with their so-called worn out soils,
are in some cases producing more
heavily than the newer fields of the
west. Maryland, for example, raises
more corn per acre than Illinois.
Pennsylvania has greater average
wheat yield than Minnesota and Ver-
mont gets more oats per acre than
does Iowa.
We have great areas of desert to
be brought under cultivation by
means of irrigation and nearly as ex-
tensive marsh and swamp lands to be
made fruitful by means Of drainage.
All these questions, which are of
such vital interest to both the farm
ers and consumers of the country,
will be discussed at the fifteenth an
nual convention of the Grain Dealers
National Association which is to be
held at Omaha Oct. 8, 10 and II next.
The association embraces within
its membership practically all the
prominent elevator owners, brokers
and receivers of grain in the country
from the largest operators in the big
grain centers like Chicago to the
smallest country shipper.
The organization was formed for
the purpose of elevating to a high
plane the grain industry of the coun-
try and to eliminate the abuses that
have in the past so increased the
hazard of business.
The Omaha convention will be ad-
dressed by some of the most prom
inent statesmen and educators in the
country as we'll as a number of Of
ficials from the department of Agri-
culture at Washington.