The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1911-05-13
THE FUTURE OF AMERi-
CAN AGRICULTURE
General Manager international Har-
vester Company
BY c. s. FUNK,

ent day is the Summation VI ih'oiSo'
which is everywhere manifested in
our farming operations and the wide
spread study of agriculture through
out the country. Parties may rise
and fall, cities perish by earthquake
or conflagration, banks may fail,
business may stagnate, and we may
suffer all the ills with which ciyil2a-
ton is afflicted, but so long as the
earth can be made to produce suffi-
cient food nation will not perish.
Agriculture is the oldest employment
in the world. The sustaining of life
by the products of the ground has
been the fundamental business or oc.
cupatlon in every age and in every
nation.
The ancient philosophers realized
even more keenly than many of our
leaders of this day the paramount inn
portance of agriculture.
men of the Roman Empire
deprecated the growing tendency of
the people to desert agriculture and
warned them that the Roman Empire
must fall with the failure of agricul-
ture.
Centuries ago Cato warned his peo-
pie, Let the oil of the farm be good
and fertile, let there be plenty of Ia
borers near, let 1t be not far from
large town; moreover, let there be
sufficient means for transporting
produce either by land or water; also
let here be good house and well
built, and let the husbandman see to
it that his land be we'll managed"
The wisest men of all times have
known that farming upderlies the life
of nations.
The future of agriculture gives full
play to the widest flights of the i'm.
agination. Up to this time our farm
ing methods have been largely of the
hit and miss variety,
We have had an abundance of good
land and have not felt the crowding Of
population, which is so serious u
problem in the older countries. Our
indifferent farming methods of the
past have been sufficient because the
population to be supported was small
in comparison with the area OF till
able land. but with population grow
ing by leaps and bounds through i'm
migration and natural increase and
with our acreage remaining the same,
we must learn to conserve the fertil-
Ity Of our land or our descendants will
pay fod our negligence and waste
Immigrants are coming to us at
the rate Of seven hundred and fifty
thousand to one million per year
We have population OF about ninety
five million In ten years the popula
ton will probably be one hundred anC
twenty millions, in twenty years 1
will very possibly be one hundred
and fifty millions.
1t is estimated that within fift,
years we shall have to supply tn
wants Of over two hundred millio
people. While hundreds of thousand
of these folks will seek homes on tn
land, the vast majority will congr,
gate in the cities and will have I
be fed and clothed by the product
OF the same number of acres of Ian
as were available when Columbus di
covered America.
Long before our population Ia
reached the two hundred million mar
the land will all be occupied and
viii not support his great populate
If our present methods are continue
1t has been estimated that Il
acres now under cultivation do nj
produce one-half of what the lar
might be made to yield without losir
an atom Of It's fertility"
We know little or nothing OF 1
tensive agriculture such as forei,
farmers are compelled to practice.
Instead of building up and nouris
ing the soil. we are too much incli