Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1912-03-22
POINTS FOR SUCCESS
Sunshine and Nitrogen Are Two
Great Essentials.
Flowing Under Of Turf, Mixed In
With Little Irrigation, Farmer
Never Need Fear Failure
Increase Fertility.

| increase Fertility.
| The farmer man or boy must be
constantly reminded OF the value OF
crop rotation, live stock, grazing
barn-yard muck, good seed and deep
| tillage or he will not get along very
well. Only the other day Burbank
told me that the two great essentials
In our economic existence are sun
shine and nitrogen-the one and the
same but Interchangeable different In
producing all that the world con-
tains, writes Eugene H. Grub in the
Denver Field and Farm. With these
essentials and the blowing under the
turf mixed in with little irrigation
we will never have g crop failure. We
will continually increase fertility and
get larger yields, just as do the farm
ers of Great Britain
1t Is a deplorable fact that the
American farmer Is producing, under
the most favorable conditions, only
one-third of the crops which the Eu-
ropenn farmer is raising under ex-
tremely bad conditions. Another sig
nificant fact Is that the fertility and
productivity OF the European farm is
gradually increasing while that Of the
average United States farm ia de-
cEeasing, In about the same inverse
ratio. This is true, despite the fact
that the farms Of Europe have been
worked for 1000 years. The corn
area of the United States Is practi-
cally developed. There are no new
fields except in Argentina where we
can look for increased production of
corn for human food or the making
Of meats.
The only solution of the probfer- of
securing cheaper prices for the food
Of the people of this nation is to
double or treble the acre yield. The
capabilities of the soil are treble, If
not quadruple, what the land is now
being made to show. We cannot too
soon adopt the methods and princi-
pies OF European agriculture. The
stinginess of the United States gov
eminent in appropriating a measly
SIS, 000,000 year for the furtherance
Of the great cause Of agriculture is
almost inconceivable. Practically the
entire wealth Of the country is Great
ed by the farmer and the miner. Out
Of the earth comes wealth in nearly
all its forms The value of the ma
tons crops approaches $4,000, 900
annually and this amount can be
trebled If the farmer is given the
proper knowledge of scientific meth
DDS. The prosperity which will en-
sue will reach every line of industry,
without exception.
The appropriation by the govern
meDt for agricultural purposes should
not be one cent less than 100000, 900 |
every year. It would be incompar-
ably the best investment that con-
gress could make. One Of the most |
factors for the education of |
he farmer along right lines is the ag
-icultural college yet this institution |
s giving the farmer Of the nation
)nly half-measure. We are today |
the revenues from the
Morrill, act. The bill, enacted in the
7aAA blAlltc, WINS UlOoI Wise Ill I'D
1t provided ample funds
or the education Of the masses along
agricultural and mechanical lines, but
We are not getting it. If the wise pro-
'isions Of that act were carried out,
particularly the one requiring that
zach and every student shall work
lot less than two nor more than four
hours a day at manual labor in the
ield or shop, our free agricultural
chools would not be overcrowded by
men and women seeking university
to the exclusion Of many
Who are earnest in their desire to
onquer soil problems.
II the student is pursuing literary
curse exclusively in the agricultural
ollege, where he does not belong, he
5ould soon seek other sources of cul-
ure. Only by a combination of the
echnical study of the class room
nd the practical work Of the field the
ar1ner student can be educated up to
he fullness OF his capacity to get the
lost from the feed lot and the soil.
mother regrettable fact of our insti-
ltions and conditions is the loss of
ne apprenticeship system in our
rades. We are now compelled to
ely upon the mechanics that come
ON Europe to do our work. If the
gricultural colleges would live up to
lie requirements of the Morrill, act
e would give the American boy an |
,norfunifv RI acoufra a mechanical I