The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1912-03-03
UNITED STATES
FARMERS CAN
GAIN BILLIONS
Crop Rotation on European System
Will Add Much to
Agriculture
AMERICA RAISES LEAST
Scientific Plans Cause Old World
Land to Raise
Much

New York, March Crop rota
ton, which will enormously increas
the yield from our cultivated land
and at the same time stop the rapi
| exhaustion of the soil which is to
day one of the most threatening
dangers before the country, is tn,
| real solution of the problem of tn,
high cost of living. according to Tru
| man G. Palmer of Washington wht
| has just returned from Europe aftel
an elaborate study of the result
achieved there by judicious sys
tenn of alternating crops. By apply
ing to themselves the results obtain
ed through the experience of Ger
man agriculturists in this respect
he aserts that American faTmer
would increase their annual profit!
by billion and a half dollars.
1.-THE great trouble with tht
American farmer Is that he Ii e.
sentially a one-crop farmer" said
Mr.. Palmer yesterday. He grows
wheatfo corn or cotton year after
year from the same fields. This
policy is sacrificing literally hun
dreds of millions of dollars a year
which American farmers might re-
ceive without any considerable in
crease of effort. Our fertilizer bill Ii
growing out of all proportion to that
OF Europe, having advanced from
$45, 100000 in 1890 to $4,000.
900 in 1910, with only an eighth
per cent increase in the average
yield of our leading cereal crops Al
the same time the soil Is being rob,
bed of it's producing power and {
condition is rapidly developing
which, unless a change is brought
about very soon, will put US in thu
position of being unable to supply
our own demands for foodstuffs.
Old Countries Raise More.
while the United States often IL
represented as feeding the starving
hordes of Europe the truth is thai
the rehabilitated soils of the Older
continent, even excluding Russia
the 'granary of Europe, produce
more bushels Of the five crops O.
wheat, rye, barley, oats and pota
toes per capita Of their population
than we in the United States pro
duce. it'll only as per cent of thu
surface area of the United States
Europe, without Russia, produces
twice as much wheat and oats, tire
and one-half times as much barley
seven times as much sugar, twelv
times as many potatoes and twenty
five times as much sugar, twelv
times as many potatoes and twenty
| five times as much rye, notwith
| standing the fact that we lie in tn
same latitude, have superior ayr
| cultural climate, virgin soils c
greater latitude, have "A supario
agricultural hlinhtb, virgin soil
of greater natural richness and tina
these European lands have bee
cropped for centuries.
II believe, however, that tn
American farmer is gradually awah
ening to the value of the method
| which have put Europe SO far ahea
of us in getting the greatest return
from the soil. The value Of GRO
| rotation and the use OF the best
| shown by the fact that If on Ian
devoted to wheat, oats, barley, ry
and potatoes in Germany thei
farmers secured only our averag
yield of these crops, German farmer
would be poorer by 100000
year Deplorable and unwelcom
as is the increased cost of Twin
cloud, it may still develop a silye
lining, If It brings our farmers
Appreciate the need of method
which will enable them to work thei
Hand to its full efficiency and at tn
lsame time to conserve its future pre-
Idudtiveness. There Is no reasol
lwhy we cannot equal or surpa'
what Germany has accomplishe
through the careful application
crop rotation. incidentally, by gil
ling more attention to the most Walt
able of all rotation crops. we ca
produce our own sugar and do mol
toward the settlement of one tru
problem than Congress and IL
courts have been able to accom-
/ ~Is