The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1911-08-05
EDITOR EXPERT PRAISES NORTH.
Wallace Of Des Moines Deeply I'm
pressed with Visit to this State.

Henry Wallace, editor of Wallaces'
Farmer and president Of the nation
al conservation congress recently Wis
tied Minnesota, and in the current
issue Of his paper, has the following
to say Of his impressio
One thing particularly interesting
about Duluth is the deep and abiding
interest that her wealthy men take in
agriculture. Any one Of these men
will leave important business to show
you his farm or home, and explain
his efforts at growing fruits and
vegetables adapted to the climate.
We account for this in two ways:
First, as far seeing men they see the
necessity of developing the Home
croft idea for the purpose of secur-
ing an abundant supply of food for
the coming population, which has
now reached about Is, 900. We were
interested to know something of the
early history of these men, and not
at all surprised to find that nearly
all o ftnem were originally farmers.
They have grown rich in various
ways, but seem not to have yOst their
love for the farm, to the training of
which in industry and economy they
owe more than perhaps anything else
in the world. We were glad to see
this recognized in a practical way;
and glad to see bunch of these men
putting down their money in clear
ing up these lands and putting them
in such shape that man can make
his living on them under favorable
circumstances, and under conditions
where he can have roads and schools
and churches.
We were glad to hear them talk
about clearing up these pine lands
not as business for the lone farmer,
but as a big problem which big men
should tackle. We heard them talk
about the unwisdom of allowing
settlers to scatter through the woods
away from woods, exposed to fires
which occasionally sweep over tim
Der country. We heard them talk of
opening up township, two town
ships or county, limiting the farms
to eighty acres, clearing up ten of
them, building a house, breaking up
the land, and then selling it, of
course, charging the cost of clear
ing to the land. AS matter of fact,
the cost of clearing up land is not
more than half as much, and often
not that, to the people who can do it
in big way, as it would be to the
Individual farmer himself. By limit
ing the acreage--and eighty acres
is enough for any man in that coun-
try-they condense population and
develop communities, enabling them
to build churches and schools and
have a society that in time will be
almost IDEAL .
We do not know that this problem
has been tackled in any big way as
yet; but the more we think of it the
more it appeals to us. Isolation in
the woods far from neighbors, with
bad roads or no roads at all, is not
as bad by any means as living in the
semi-arid section miles from neigh
bors, with the possibilities of the
country still to be developed, but
still it is bad enough.
We believe that in time this cut
over country will be one of the most
densely populated sections of the
United States; and some times we
think that it would have been a great
deal better for the farming popular
ton and for the nation itself, If the
entire, Mississippi: valley had been
opened up in the slow way in which
all timbered countries must be
opened up. In that case we would
not have had the glut of farm pro-
ducts which impoverished farmers
for many years. There would not
h h11 o0 E<>,s
years, the mining of fertility of the
soil of these great prairies and SELL
ing it for the cost of mining, thus de-
velOping great trusts, building up
great cities incapable of good govern
ment and sources of political and
moral corruption ~.
We are not disposed to find fault
with the Creator of the Universe for
managing things as He has There
will no doubt good come out of it in
the end; but none the less in looking
yer that cuntry we could not help
specializing as to the difference there
would have been in our whole civiliz-
alton, if it had not been SO easy to
get a farm in the Mississippi valley.
For be it remembered that it is the
opening up of this great Mississippi
valley, which needed neither pillow
nor tilling spade; that has led to
the wonderful development of great
cities all over the world, by furnish
ing them food cheaper than cost. We
complain of the lumber king, who
has swept away these great pine for
ests; we complain of the great coal
kings who have wasted our coal; but
the farmer himself has been quite as
much waster as any of these, by
selling the fertility of the soil at the
mere cost of mining and to the great
loss to posterity.
We cannot help specializing on
these things; and we think it is a
fit subject for speculation, provided
it does not interfere with the obi
cation to conserve the fertility that
remains to make the most of what is
left. Anyway we were glad to get
away from Des Moines, where the
thermometer ranged from 100 to LOG,
glad to get into country where a
blanket and light overcoat were a
comfort, glad to run up against q
bunch of men who are doing big
things in big way, and who are be-
ginning to do big things in the line
of the development of agriculture.
and planning still bigger things for
the future.
We should add that the whole
northern country has had about the
right amount of rainfall following the
severe drouth of last year; that there
were vast crops of potatoes growing
luxuriantly; that there will be plenty
CT hay in that section. Unfortunate
", however, the clover in some sec
tons was Killed out last year. We
congratulate the people in that sec