Norwich bulletin., 1913-05-28

1 of living in Connecticut been as high
 as at the present time.
 These are facts which cannot be 1 disputed and must cause every think ing person in New England to pause
 and consider. We are the greatest l manufacturing section of the United ] States.
 Leaders In Manufacturing.
 New England has always occupied 1 supreme position as the leading man.
 Manufacturing depends on labor, and 1 the cost of labor is regulated, general | ly speaking, by the cost of food. The
 farmer produces from the soil and all
 values come from the soil, but the man l ufacturer simply adds labor to the
 natural products of Mother Earth and
 thereby increases the cost. As a man l ufacturing community we occupy l hazardous position Practically all of l our raw matreials are imported into l the state, and practically all of our | manufactured product finds a market l outside Of the state. Seventy five per
 cent of the food supplies which we | consume come from out of the state. l Is not this a condition which should cause all our people to pause and think
 seriously, and it is thought that has 1 led me to appear here tonight think i ing perahps that some of my observa- | tions may be interesting and some of i my conclusions may be worth your 1 thought and attention. While make | no pretense to having solved the prob 1 lem, yet after some study and much ob- | servation there are certain conclusions at which I have arrived that would kseem to be of moment to us all.
 The result of this large increase in | our manufacturing industries, not only | in New England but throughout the 1 whole country. and the opening of the 1 virgin lands of the west, as I said be- | fore have been at the expense and to- 1 the detriment of agriculture in Con- l necticut so that since 1850 eight hun 1 dred thousand acres of tillabIe land in ] the state have gone back from the till l able condition to the untillable condi- | ton. This, perhaps may not be un- expected all the facts taken into con- | sideration, but now that all or prac- 1 tically all of the virgin lands of the
 west are much higher per unit than | they are in Connecticut, 1t does seem little strange that in the last decade
 we find that practically the same con- l dition prevails. Comparing the census of 1900 with the last census of 1910, we find that S0,O0O acres of tillable
 land have gone back-S,000 acres a | year.
 What 5000 Acres Represent Let us for a moment consider what l this 5000 acres per year represents
 At $50 per acre it represents tax able property of $240000.
 The last census showed that the average production of corn in. Con- necticut was forty eight bushels per acre. and if this 5000 acres were in corn it would represent a production
 of 384,000 bushels per year, or re-
 duced to dollars it would mean $200,- 900 per year.
 If this same 5000 acres of land were in wheat with a production of twenty bushels to the acre, it would represent $116,O00.
 By the last census Connecticut pro- duced one and three tenths tons of hay on each acre of land, and this same 5000 acres in hay would represent l 8 yearly revenue of $200,000
 Practically all our Connecticut lands will grow alfalfa equally as well as any lands in this country. This same 5000 acers put down to alfalfa would represent yield of 32, 900 tons, or revenue of $640,O00 per year.
 Let us turn about and estimate what this 5000 acres would produce in the shape of live stock. Using the average production per acre, as shown by the last census, this same 5000 acres of land that each 1 year has gone back to the untillableI I condition would feed 4,000 cows. Tt would fatten 5000 head of stock. '' It would keep in marketable con- dition for wool or for mutton 10000 1 head of sheep.
 'It would fatten 5000 hogs. l Please understand that this repre- sents the production each year in the shape of food supplies that this 5000 acres would produce under the ordinary present conditions of land production | in Connecticut
 l Let us take another view of this
 matter and measure it by people. Would Support Hartford. Tn the past ten years enough land 1 las gone back to the uncultivated con- dition in Connecticut which if prop
 erly cultivated. would support a witty
 like Hartford, New Haven or Bridge port.
 ''In the past five years enough land ] has gone back to the uncultivated con- 1 dition in Connecticut which, If proper 1 ly cultivated would furnish all the food supplies for a city like Waterbury, l New Britain, New London, Norwich or Danbury
 If this same 5000 acres of land 1 which since 1850 has gone back to the 1 uncuit1vated it would under the ordin- ary conditions of cultivation-support our present population of about 1,0O0- I 900 people.
 T might say further, that if all 1 of the present land in Connecticut that
 is cultivated (omitting the SO0,00O acres referred to) were properly cul- tivated Connecticut could feed from 1 her own soil 5,000,0 900 people
 1 Denmark with an aera about three l times the size of Connecticut and a population of about the same density. l provides her people with not only all l the food supplies which they consume but exports farm produce in value ex- 1 ceeding $150,0oO per year
 Lands Not Worn Out.
 People say that our Connecticut lands are worn out, and yet abroad l We find land that has been worked 1 Tor thousand years still yielding bet ter crops than our own soil 1 Japan. one of the oldest nations on l the earth. supports an ordinary house. 1 hold of four to six persons on four acres of land. We say that our ] American people could not live on the l kind and the amount of food which l an ordinary Jap consumes. It is @ fact 1 however, that war is the most severe 1 test of the endurance of nation or 1 the people of a nation. and in the late 1 war between Japan and Russia l larger proportion of the Japanese l army reported for duty on the firing 1 line than ever was known in the his 1 tory of wars. Whether their food SUD- i plies are adapted to the American | citizens idea of living or not. they l certainly produce a larger per cent of l fighting men in proportion to the to- | tai army in the field than any nation | has ever been able to muster under l similar conditions.
 If the tillable area of Connecticut l was cultivated as it is in France, in 1 Denmark and in England it would
 not only furnish all the food supplies