Abilene weekly reflector., 1912-10-03
EEsT CHANCES NOW EVER
KNOWN.
Never Was There . Time When tne
Purchaser Had Things HIS
own Way SO Fully As In
These Prosperous
Days.

dress today before the National lr-
rieation congress. Mr.. Case Is vice
president OF the congress and for
n,er president of the Trans-Mississip-
pi Commercial Congress and has
for forty years been Identified with
the farming and business life OF the
Middle West. He outlined the pres
ent condition Of the western farmer
and said:
The closing half of the 18th CEN
tury witnessed in this country the
worlds greatest expansion of. agri-
cultural territory. Steadily popula-
tion moved toward the setting sun
and foot by foot the wilderness was
conquered. The pioneer American
farmef, unwilling to pay even $l.zs
an acre for his land, exerted his
political influence and under the
homestead act land was made free.
Then came the era of railroao
extension. The opportunity to emil
crate by rail and obtain a farm for
nothing coaxed farmers farther into
the West. At the end of the civil
war hundreds of thousands OF men
Who had been taught to take care
If themselves away from home were
released and they Joined the cara
vans moving toward the open plain.
- .,,,,,hax of farms doubled
between 1860 and 1870.
In the next decade the rush OF
settlers was toward the prairies OF
Kansas and Nebraska, a rich 90
main occupied by Indians and the
buffalo. In ten years one-third OF
this great territory was cut up into
farms. During this period the ad-
dition to the farm area of the United
States was equal to the entire acre
age of France.
From 1880 to 1890 the stream Oh
settlers flowed out into the North-
west, the great Red river valley the
marvellous hard wheat country OF the
Dakotas, and on across the range TO
the Pacific Northwest With the
settlement of Oklahoma the primer
nal wave of emigration reached the
one hundredth meridian and was
checked by the dead fine of the nlgn
.nlains. Beyond that border was nee
essary new system of farming IN
order that the tiller of the SOIL
might make a living. Since tnen'
though additions to the total farm
area have shown great advancement
the cultivated acreage has increased
slowly.
K Marvellous Expansion Of Farms.
IN, the twenty years following
1870 the wild land turned into farms
was greater than the combined area
~ Germany, Great Britain. Belgium
and Denmark. This expansion was
made possible by our railroads, new
machinery, new processes OF farm
ing and the enterprise Of the pioneer
Never before was such an agricultur-
al empire annexed to the worlds 8
market in SO short period.
The farther West, all that great
intermountain region where nature
has been overcome by the ingenuity
Of man, has grown up since 1891.
Orange groves in the Southwest
cattle ranches in the semi-arid re-
eione and farm lands under irriga-
tion have been given to our agri-
cultural possessions. But all It's
cultivated area combined is less than
ten per cent more than farm lands
IN Kansas alone. Though irriga-
tion and dry farming have made
much great headway in these eleven
states and territories the acreage OF
actually titled soil is small in COM
parison with the mighty Mississippi
valley.
Farms Grow Slowly.
Future additions will be made to
the farm territory OF the United
states but the period of notable ex-
nAnsion has passed. In the eastern
etates the farm acreage is declining;
II the great Mississippi valley II has
reached its maximum. In 1850 the
number Of farms in this country was
one and one-hslf million; now It is
e,x and one-third million. In 1897
4here was farm for every sixteen
persons; today there Is one for ev-
erv fourteen. Thus the farm has
increased slightly faster than the
population. For the past decade
however, the increase IN farms mas
Kailen below that of population IN
1890 there was one farm TO every
frteen pursons. The average size