The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1912-10-27

while the increase in yield per acre |
has been only about i've percent. The
crux of the whole problem of the |
alarming growth In the expense OF
filling the American family's market
basket is found In the fact that the |
number Of mouths to be fed has been
multiplying SO much more rapidly |
than the supply with which to feed
them and that, SO far as Increasing
the output OF the average acre Of
United States farm land is concerned
the boosted progress of agricultural
science and education has been of al
most no effect.
Viewed from this angle the bumper
crops of 1912 are not bumper crops
at all. SO far short. do they fail of be-
ing what they might have been made
by proper methods of cultivation.
This Is strikingly pointed out by H.
Preetorious, European agricultural
expert who has Just concluded a tour
of the United States.
American farmers. with many in
diFidual exceptions OF course. are still
in the dark ages OF agriculture" he
said Year after year they raise the
same crops on their lands. Mean
while yields decline as they are
bound to do under such treatment
No soil less wonderfully fertile than
that OF the United States could have
withstood this systematic robbery SO
long as 1t has. But 1t is beginning
to tell rapidly now. so rapidly that II
the present rate of progress con-
tinues the United States viii become
food importing nation within five
years.
Contrast this condition with that
of the farmers of those thrifty little
countries, Denmark. Holland and Bel
GUM. or even with the larger Euro
pean countries like France, England
and Germany. Twenty or twenty-five
years ago these nations were pro-
drcing little more on the average
from their acres than were the farm
ers of America, but while the latter
/ have been getting more and more ey-
| have bee ngetting more and more ey-
+
their average product per acre is
/ twice that of the United States. This
/ difference is often attributed to the
abundance of labor in Europe and to
the cultivation of very small tracts.
This is not sound explanation,
i however, for no better farming meth
DDS are to be found anywhere than
on some Of the large estates of Ger
many and Austria. It should be
borne in mind too that the Europeans
have had to deal with soils that have
q been titled for hundreds of years
while the American farmer has had
practically virgin lands at his dis
posal.
i THE truth of the matter Is thar
Europe has been applying the princi
pies Of scientific crop rotation TO its
Z farms while in the United States the
ruinous policy of growing wheat or
corn or cotton or hay year after year,
on the same land has been adhered to-
Root crops one year in four, rotating
with cereals and green crops has be
come the fundamental rule in Euro
pean farming. This means deep plow-
ing. the breaking up of the subsoil
bringing new areas into fertility
and through cultivation, freeing the
ground of weeds for succeeding crops
This is the real explanation Of the
: great increase in productivity of the
lands Of western Europe In England
/ ~ tr
brought about through the growing Of
mangels and other roots for feeding
to cattle In France and Germany Il
4 has come from the culture of sugar
= beets which has been encouraged b,
: both these governments through boun
sugar and in all other possible ways
Z II seems remarkable in view of the
quickness of Americans in adopting
9 new methods in other lines Of bust
u ness as soon as such improvement:
= are discovered that they have no
done this in the case Of agriculture
: their most important industry. Thi
is the more surprising inasmuch a.
y the United States has a far create
area than Germany adopted to tn,
growing of sugar beets, Is the world
9 greatest consumer of sugar and pay
:. every year to foreign nations 500
. 100000 or more for this product /
y the growing OF sugar beets one yea
y in four in rotation with cereal crop
!. were applied In the United States a
!. generally as it is In Germany 1t woul
u mean the addition of two to three bi
= lion dollars year to the value O
u Amerca's farm output
,e