Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1911-04-13

INTENSIVE FARMING.


INTENSIVE FARMING. :,
The people who fear that the world
will starve to death because the soil
will fail to produce sufficient to feed the
people are referred to a little book re-
Gently published by a Russian who has
given the possibilities of soil culture
considerable attention. A part of the
book that refers to the possibilities OF
Agriculture discloses some astonishing
facts that the writer has picked up
in his travels. His object seems TO be
to show that even the smallest and
most thickly populated of the European
countries are capable of sustaining
their people and doing so in a better
way and at less cost than is now the
case, and yet at a less cost to the FAC
tory workers and other consumers. This
will be done by better fertilization and
better cultivation n the author gives
numerous cases to show that larger
crops. than are now grown can be op-,
Iained by better farming.
"If we go to the farm of Mr.. Goppart.
one of the promoters of ensilage IN
France, we shall see him growing, on
q raine and we'll nure field. no
less than an average of l2O,OOO POUNDS
of corn grass in the acre, which gives
SU,UUV pOuIluS OI OIy nay, Sho
food of one horned beast per acre
LAS to beet root, which is used also
for feeding cattle, Mr.. Champion. at
whitby, succeeds. with the help OF
sewage, in growing $1,000 pounds of
beets an acre here, and occasionally
$780, 900 and 100000 pounds. He thus
grows on each acre the food of at cas-
two or three head of cattle. and such
crops are not isolated facts"
Further along he tells of another
French farm gardener, who produced
one year, on two and seVen-tenths
acres, more than ten tons OF carrots,
ten tons of onions, radishes and other
flowers, 5000 baskets Of tomatoes, 500
dozen of choice fruit, and $4,000 heads
of salad, a total of 100000 pounds of
vegetables. Such results are obtained
by the help of warm frames. glass bells,
etc. BY such help In starting vegeta-
bles are grown In the open ar M;
Kropatkin says, to the alu of $1,000
per acre.
With such high cultivation he shows
that 600 persons could easily live on a
square mile, which means that an acre
and a small fraction would support a
man. AS he expresses it. with cul-
tural methods already used on a large
scale, 100 human ~beings-not idlers-
living on 1000 acres could easily, with
out any kind of overwork, obtain from
thu area a luxurious supply of vegeta-'
bile and animal food, as we'll as the flax.
wool, silk and hides necessary for their
%lclothing."
He seems surprised at the crops OF
corn sometimes gathered in our west
ern states, and prints the figures IN
italics from 81 to us bushels to the
,acre." But our corn is not grown IN
European countries, as a field crop, n
he probably compares our yield to those
of wheat there.
He notes that the ratio of increase OF
the wheat crop in Franco has been SIX
times greater than the ratio of increase
of population. Some thirty years g
quite a good yield in that country, but
now on the same soil 33 bushels is
the average, while in the best soils 1T
Is from 43 to AZ bushels.
Other marvellous facts are such as
these. The small Island Of Jersey, in
the English channel, s by 6 miles in
extent, furnishes a population of about
two inhabitants to each acre, or 1900
to the square mile. all due to intensive
culture. The soil is poor and rocky,
cultivated. But" Prince K. says. the
more we study the modern achieve
ments of agriculture h more we see
that the limits OF the soil are not at
tanned ven in jersey" The average
potato crop, for example. is nearly ~
TONS per acre, VI ucdIiy 4VV OuSAClo'
but a certain grower, whom he names.
once dug no less than 1924 bushels on
a single acre, and 1,120 bushels are re-
ported on an acre in Minnesota.
Experiments with wheat are cited
where. by special care in selecting seed
and planting in rows, small fields have
produced crops in the proportion OF 60.
~, S3 and ven 80 bushels per acre. In
one case eight n One-half bushels
were grown on one-twentieth of an
acre. Such wonderful yields show very
plainly that the Did countries are able.
to take care of their population for a
lon time to come, and that we in
America nave not yet begun to ex-.
haust our resources.--Indiana Farmer
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