Daily Kennebec journal., 1912-05-25
Amarioan Extravaaanee.

| American Extravaganza.
1t is painfully evident that the peo-
| ple of America must be awakened from
the apathetic stage which accepts the
| common way as the best way and ex-
| travagance as a necessary evil. When
our reckless waste of natural resources
lis overcome we shall hear less about the
| high cost of living. Americans at this
| time are educated UP to, in their man
ners and customs. degree of reckless
ness and extravaganza that surpasses
anything in the history of the world.
The American Standard of Living
is a fetish that leads thousands of citi-
zens 30 attempt to maintain" some
thing which they cannot afford, We are
food and plenty of it; we must have
luxuries and danties at extravagant
prices-because our neighbors have
them. And Mrs. Jones is accustomed
to say to Mrs Brown or Mrs. Smith:
we had the loyeliest strawberries to-
day quite likely mid December in
Maine) or we had this or we had that
something out of fhe ordinary for
which three times the price of neces-
saries must be paid. OF course Mrs.
Brown and Mrs. Smith have to be able
to retort that they had green peas or
asparagus or something of the sort, in
order to let Mrs Jones know that they
are living up to the american Stand
ard"
Farmers and lumbermen extrava-
gantiy strip the land of timber and
wood crop the soil until 1t is sapped of
its natural properties which ensure lux
pasturage because they have gone over
more land than they can properly cul-
tivate. The same is true in all branches
of ouf American industry and social
customs. We have altogether too much
"Worn-out" farming land. On this
score a writer in the current issue of
the Farm and Fireside has something to
say that is worth remembering. Among
other things he writes:
",Fhe American farmer has swept
across the continent, leaving abandon
ed farms and worn-out fields in his
wake, until now we have came to the
point where all our arable land has
been occupied. and we can no longer
wear 1t out and abandon it. We must
not only maintain ourselves on the
land we have, we must maintain a
population that will soon be double and
treble what il now is.
where should we look for Informal
ton if not to the countries of an equal
degree of civilization that are much
older than our own and have a much
greater population in proportion to
their area2 Here in Europe are farm
lands that have been in cultivation for
thousand years and are producing
larger crops than our fertile virgin
soils and no one ever thinks of these
farms wearing out. on the other hand,
they become more valuable and more
productive year by year. 1t is a nota-
BILE fact that has been repeated over
and over to the American farmer, that
the average production per acre of the
European countries, particularly Eng
land. France and Germany is over twice
the average production of the same
crops in the United States. Wherein
lies the difference? 1t is not because
European lands are naturally more fer
tile than American but because they
are farmed more intensively. The land
Is better for the seed. plowed deeper,
worked more before seeding, and as far
9s possible the lands that are to be
planted in the spring are plowed in
the fall and allowed to weather during
the winter, a system that deserves to
be greatly extended on American
farms, especially in our eornIands"