The weekly chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Craig County, Okla.) 1905-1913, 1912-05-03
FACTS BY A MASTER
BUILDER.
(By Benjamin F. Yoakum, Chairman
of the Board and Executive Com
mittee of the Frisco Lines.)

OF the Board and Executive Com
mittee of the Frisco Lines.)
1t requires the same intelligent work
to develop the soil to its fullest capac-
ity as it does to build up a manufac-
turing establishment. To build UP
this country rapidly and successfully
we need systematic team work. No
one horse can move the heavy load,
but when the full team go against their
collars the wheels begin to turn.
Millions have been saved in econo-
mics in distribution in manufacturing,
while but little attention in the same
way has been extended in the distri-
button of the products of agriculture
The great purchasing power of the
world comes from the soil. Each dol
lar increase in the products per acre
of cultivated land in this country
means $3.50, O00,O00-an average of s.
for every man. woman and child in the
United States.
Germany was cultiyating it's land be-
fore America was discovered, yet its
average yield of wheat last year was
291s bushels to the acre; ours was IA
bushels. If our farmers had farmed
and treated their soil as the Germans
did. last years wheat crop would have
yielded them $500, 100000 more than
it did, and we would have raised 209
bushels of potatoes to the acre instead
of only 107. This difference of 1902
bushels to the acre would have meant
5000, 100000 more to our formers on
potatoes alone.
The development in the Rio Grande
valley in Texas has been accomplish
ed by irrigation costing from $50 to
$25 an acre to put water on the land,
while in the rich valley Of the Missis-
sippi river it requires only from $40
to SIS an acre to take the water off.
The farmer has done only one-half
his duty to himself and family when
he has raised crop. 1t is equally i'm
portant that he understands the mar
ket channels through which his pro-
ducts pass after he ships them and
that he may receive the best possible
returns for his work. The cost of get
ting food supplies to the railroad over
bad country roads and of getting such
supplies to the home in the cities is
out of all proportion to the railroad
charge for transportation. To help
cut down the big expense of bad coun-
try roads to the farmers, the govern
ment provides little over 100000 a
year and buys battleships for $4,000
600.
The value of farm products in the
United States last year averaged about
$500 for each member of farming
family This means that $500 had to
clothe, feed, educate and provide every
thing for one person on the average
farm. besides paying taxes, help, new
buildings, machinery and tools, re-
pairs, feed and care on animals and
general upkeep of the farm. This is
a small return. The farmer bitches
up early, works long hours, feeds late.
Unlike others, he cannot work eight
or nine hours a day and quit.
For century our government has
looked with indifference at the rich
swamp lands of the Southern States,
while England has been furnishing its
money and credit to aid Egypt to re-
claim waste lands in the valley of the
Nile, 1000 miles away. The need of
more acreage under cultivation in the
Mississippi valley, to provide homes
for thousands of those now huddled in
the cities and to produce more food
and clothing, should cause our govern
ment to take deep interest in the
waste lands of Louisiana, Arkansas,
Mississippi and other Southern States.
Although the government has spent
over $100000,000 in putting water on
lands in the northwest at $35 an acre,
it has not shown much interest in TAX
ing the water off the swamp lands of
the south at cost of from $40 to SIS
an acre. These lands, when drained,
will yield annually crops worth three
times as much per acre as the average
in the United States. Such land, when
drained and cleared, would cost about
$25 an acre, and when cultivated its
value would easily be 500 an acre.
There are 25OO0,000 acres of swamp
land in the Southern States of the
Mississippi valley, worth today about
$500, 100000, which, when drained,
would be worth at least $2,000,000,000.
Farmers, and not military power,
must restore our economic balance.
The politicians pour out the govern
ment's money to build fighting ma
chimes and starye the agriculturist. A
forty-acre farm of reclaimed vailed
land will comforfahIv c1nnort a family