The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-01-08
j. IT, HILL SAYS FARM
YIELDS CAN BE DOUBLED
Result $50 Farms Explained by Railroad
Executive Demonstrated Possibility
Of Increasing Yields Cent.

yield secured on the farms on which the
tests have been conducted were APP
iproxilnately as follows; wheat 81
bushels, barley, AZ bushels and oats, IS
bushels, as compared to an average for
| the whole country of 1873 bushels OF
wheat, 243 bushels of barley and 500
bushels of oats In other words these.
tests have demonstrated the practieability
of doubling grain yields and even sur
passing the high figures which the Gull
tivation of the sugar beet has brought
about in Germany That they are far
lin excess of the yields secured from
the same land under the old methods is
indicated by the fact that Minnesota's
wheat yield for this year is estimated at
IL bushels an acre.
"This," explains Mr. Hill, "is but the
beginning of an educative process which
will be carried out on larger scale next
year"
The German farmer. who thirty-five
years ago, averaged no greater yield per
acre than his American cousin, has
increased his yield nearly 100 per cent
in that period by planting his grain crops
| in rotation with the sugar beet Incl
dentally the utilization of the sugar beet
has enabled Germany to produce all her
own sugar with $50O00D annual
surplus for export. Mr.. Hill is emphatic
in his advocacy of the beet as farm
rejuvenator.
The beet sugar advocates" he says,
| argue that sugar beet cultivation raises
the average of all other crops raised in
the same district The figures show this
to be true 1t is due to the fact that it
cannot be grown successfully without
| deep blowing, frequent narrowing, and
general resort to more intensive cutiva-
ton. That will insure large crops of
anything where the soil is not sterile
Whatever the valuable and suggestive
sugar beet statistics may prove in other
respects, they establish conclusively, by
such comparisons as that between tile
| United States and Germany, the practic-
ability of doubling by better methods
the acre yield of all our principal farm
products"
In fact, statistics gathered from scores
Iof farmers scattered through the sugar
beet states, who, have planted beets in
rotation with other crops one year ont
LOT four, show even more remarkable
results than Mr.. Hills experiments
Their average yield per acre is:
Wheat Barley Oats
Bushels 431 1914 800
! These results were not from expert
nlent stations or model fields, but COM
mercial farm run for profit. They bear
out the statement that the sugar beet can
do for the United States what it has
done for Europe, and that the American
i farmer. by taking thought, can do better
i than his European cousins at their own
i game. The success of the sugar beet in
i this country both as crop of great
4 value in itself and as means 81 in
lcreasing the yield OF other crops grown
. demonstrated. Nearly 100000 tons OF
beets were harvested this year and unless
adverse legislation renders the industry
unable to continue in competition with
the lower wages and the bounties and
tariff protection used to stimulate it in
I foreign countries it is believed that its
expansion will be rapid, since once the
I farmer has seen his neighbor with the
aid of a very profitable sugar beet crop
doubling his WELD Of grains he is more
and more rapidly making similar OPP
portunity for himself At present while
American farm progress has Jagged until
it has fallen far behind that of Europe
For This reason the tests which Mr. Hill
. has been CARRYING on have been oil
particular Importance and their results
as they are now coming in are looked
Upon as of the greatest significance for
the farmers of the country in their efforI
, to improve this condition.