St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1911-10-04
Some Farming Problems.

L0HClOn during the past week. Inc
talk serves to emphasize what we
have already suggested, that the
matter of the distribution of the
farmers products to the consumer
must be dealt with. James J. Hill,
the great railroad man of the North
west; says that the concentration of
our population in the cities has CIV
en- the farmer two mouths to feed
today where he had one thirty-five
years ago. He foresees "a fat in
dustrial season. as a result and
something that is coming before an
adjustment of conditions has been
made.
The third National Conservation
Congress which met in Kansas City
gave much attention to the farming
situation. President Henry Wallace
devoted almost his entire address to
farming. He declared f'that many
farmers of the present day have
more faith in moon signs than in
agricultural colleges and experiment
stations; more faith in ordinary pol
iticians than in college professors
and scientists; more faith in yellow
journals than in the best. agricu1-
tural papers, and that the nine
teenth century farmer was no farm
er at all, but a robber of the soil"
He further stated that "were it
not for the over 500 million dollars
worth of cotton that we send abroad
each year, the country would be
drained of it's precious metals to
settle our foreign obligations, and
we would be on the verge of nation
al bankruptcy. Lands in England
that have been farmed for more
than thousand years produce more
than twice as much wheat per acre
on the average as we do in the nat
urally better lands of the MISSISSIPPI
pi valley. This demonstrates the
difference between farming and
merely mining the soil fertility"
His recommendations were:
eve must from henceforth learn
how to farm. We cannot greatly
increase our acreage; will in fact be
compelled by the return of normal
climatic conditions over our west
ern territory to reduce it, The only
thing left to do is to grow more
grain per acre, better stock in great
er numbers per quarter sections.
Only in this way can we reduce the
cost of living.
''Our great problem, as I said to
this Congress a year ago, is how to
produce food for our own people
at prices which they can afford to
pay. But how? Partly by putting
more brains into our farming"
President Taft in addressing the
Conservation Congress reviewed the
history of farming and farm produc-
ton in this country for the past
f1fty-six years, and then said that
while he did not agree with those
who say that in fifty years the
United States will be unable to feed
it's own people, there was need for
intelligent understanding by farm
ers of the trend of events.
The president added that if the
population of the nation increased
proportionately in the next fifty
years the United States would have
doubled the number of it's people
cit is necessary, them he said
that not only our acreage but ou1
production per acre must increase
proportionately so that our people
may be fed. We must realize thai
the best land and the easiest lanC
to cultivate has been taken up anG
cultivated, and the additions tt
improved lands and to total acre
age in the future must be of lanC
much more expensive to prepare fol
tillage. The increase per acre O
the production, too, must be stead.
and each year an increase is NOR,
difficult.
Still even in the face of thes,
facts there is no occasion for dis
couragement. We are going to re
main self-supporting country AM
raise food enough within our bord
ers to feed our people" Mr.. Tai
said the states should take up tn
question of increasing the produc
ton of farms. Much had BEEF
done, he said, by agricultural edu
: cation in colleges and schools, an,
the improvement through such in
situations was bound to continue.
While these are not the views O
men who actually do the plowin
and harvesting we believe they ar
ideas the farmer will do well t
consider. A greater production pc
acre and cheaper method of dis
: tributing agricultural products ar
two pressing necessities. Nor
scientific cultivation of the so