The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-12
COL. JARVIS WRITES
 ..a ON AGREgULT TURF.
Interesting Article Showing Pos-
 abilities of Nutmeg State

Colonel Charles M. Jarvis of New Britain, president of the Connecticut State Agricultural society, has writ ten the following very interesting and suggestive article. on .'tAgriculture in ACohnetticutss' which contains many facts which show the great possibili- ties of the Nutmeg state in this line of industry and great need of more scientific work among the farmers of the commonwealth:
 The greatest problem before the people of Connecticut to-day is the high cost of livingA-it effects us all, rich and poor, because never before have the necessities of life been as high as thy ar to-day.
 Tn future offers little relief, except eszA relief as the people of Connecti- cut can give to themselves.
 Baron Van Lobeck said long ago:
 Perfect agriculture is the true foun- dation of the trade and industry. It is a foundation of the riches of the states"
 All values come from the soil and the State of Connecticut creates but a scant twenty-five per cent of the food Supplies which our people annually consume.
 Suppose that all the trunk lines con- meeting New England with the west should be tied up by the invasion of a foreign foe, or by a prolonged strike or from any extraordinary cause what ever-how long could New. England exist under these circumstances?
 Since 1850, 800, 900 acres, representing $24, 4,000000 worth of tillable land lH Connecticut have gone back to the Un- tillable condition.
 Between 1900 and 1910 the decrease in our tillable lands has been 5000 acres per year, representing taxable value of nearly one-quarter of a mil- lion dollars-more money than our whole state agricultural appropriation.
 As a manufacturing community our position is exceedingly. hazardous as all of our raw materials are imported into the state and practically all our manufactured product is marketed outside of the state. We produce nothing except one-quarter of the food supplies which our people consume. We change the character of our raw product, by adding labor, but we de- pend upon those outside of our state to supply us with the raw product and take our finished manufactured ar tieles.
 Worse still, seventy-five per cent of what our people consume bread of. their mouths-comes from outside of the state
 Stop one moment and think of this alarming condition-every thinking man must realize what it means
 Less than ten per cent. of our total area is under active cultivation, and only twenty per cent. of owr total area is under any ti1lage whatever.
 IN OTHER LANDS.
 seventy-five per cent of the total area of the British Islands is under cultivation.
 Denmark, with an area, about three times the state of Connecticut and T5cpulation of about the same density, provides her people with all the food JOG, 900 of food products of foreign countries every year.
 Japan-one of the oldest nations of Tte earth-supports an ordinary house. hold of four to six persons on four acres of land.
 CONNECTICUTS OPPORTUNITIES
 If the ten per cent of our cultivated area was cultivated as in Japan, it would more than support our present population
 If the twenty per cent. of the till able land now farmed in Connecticut predueed an ordinary, crop s(measured by foreign preductien) 1t would fur nish nearly all the food supplies our people here consume.
 If the tillable' area of Connecticut was cultivated as 1t is in France, Den mark and England, we would not only raise all the food supplies for our own people, but would have a large sur plus to spare.
 Farming in Connecticut may be a lost art. and yet farming in other ,rQuntries where the land has been mRder cultivation for a tIf6lIsand years iS profitable industry
 James J. Hill says:
 saThe one question Of supreme irn- portance fto the American peopIe) isl Co extract from the soil the maximum h~>daaxian. at- the minimum cost. Upon