The Cairo bulletin., 1911-08-03
ILLINOIS FARMERS.
HAVE NEGLECTED THEIR 0pP0R-
TUNITIES SAYS /. r.
STEWART.
Could More Than Double Their Crops
In Nearly All Lines By More
Intelligent Work.

much better. is almost Inevitably to
hurt his feelings. But to tell the peo
pie Of Illinois that they ought to
have done a great deal better than
they have in agriculture ought not
TO hurt their feelings, because every
one who tries can see the truth OF
the statement, says j. r.. Stewart OF
Champaign in The Illinois States
man"
For instance. we speak in grand
totals about our corn production.
Truly ii is enormous in 1910 an
aggregate Of 414.Si2,0o0 bushels,
tho product OF l0,609,000 acres.
But the magnifcence Of the state
mcnt stops there, for that is only
80, bushels an acre. Tho up-to-
date scientific farmer turns up bis
nose at such WELD He says it
tnhCs . bushels an acre to cover
the expense Of raising a crop of corn
But on the farm at the University OF
i'ttlpiHs WI ol p'N iltit, W ttll tult~
fuzzy selected seed thorough Guilt
vatien and in good rotation OF corn,
oats aud clover, corn has yielded
60 bushels as an average for the past
six wears: and, with the addition of
lime, phosphate and organic manur-
es tho same seed and tillage pro-
duced 90 bushels on exactly similar
ground That Is to say, by enrich
ing the soil an increase in produc-
ton was made, equal itself to the av-
eraGe yield of corn per acre in the
State.
TO double orr corn crop means y
yield of S2S,0o0.0n0 bushels year
in Illinois alone, and that is almost
as much corn as the eutire country
produced forty-five years ago.
Wheat Quite As Bad
But our record on heat is as UNI
satisfactory as on corn. The aver
age wheat yield IN the United States
does not cYcced fourteen bushels an
acre In Illinois the average for the
past ten years has been Sc. But
on the University farm suitable en-
richment, of the soil has given a six
year average of twenty-seven bush
els an acre. and on the Antioch field,
near the Wisconsin line, similar
treatment has produced an average
annual increase Of eighteen bushels
an acre. Such increases are esti-
mated to make return of about 100
nor cent ON the cost Of the fertli-
zers used.
There is great room also for eX-
pausiou In oats production. The
average oats yield in Illinois for
the ten years. 1901 to 1910. nclu-
sive, as 500 bushels An adjacent
field, treated exactly the same way
in every respect, except that it re-
eeived n liberal allowance of rock
phosphate, gave 50 bushels an acre
Potato Crop Neglected.
But il is in potatoes that we fall
down conspicicuously Our record
crop. that of 1909. was $40 600 900 |
bushels, grown on $4,000 acres.
or l06.S bushels an acre In forty
Ave years the potato crop in the
United states has reached 90 bush |
els an acre, or over, only four times
aud in Illinois only three times, The
Illinois ten-year average run from
63 to S4,a bushels Yet E. II Grubb
Of Colorado has produced 600 bush
els on an acre Of irrigated land, and
the Earl of Rosebery Is credited with
producing 1000 bushels on an acre
Of land that has been cultivated
for 200 years
Dairy Returns Meagre.
From the dairy industry also re-
turns are entirely too meagre. The
business has not been brought down
to critical and scientific basis OK
cent IN tte hands of a very few The
first glariug fact is that too many
cows are kent I'm the herds because