The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1913-09-26
[coNcLuDEDl
Are Prices High?

auate price, for his products, II all Of
the factors, which enter into the cost
of production, are taken into consider
alton. If it had not been for the vast
new areas of virgin soil which have
been opened up in America during
the last fifty years, the price OF all
foods. including cereals, in the mar
xets Of the world would be much hlgn-
er than they are at present. 1t is
not improbable that they would be
double the present price. We have,
in this country, been producing on our
new rich soils, at small cost, by fer
tility exhausting system OF agricul-
ture. crops. which we have sold
abroad, at a price below that, at
which they could be produced for, I'M
der any permanent system OF agrl-
culture. In other words, we nave
been selling our soil fertility to other
countries, for less than its real worth.
The decline in agriculture in Great
Britain, which has reached such
alarming proportions, only eight per
cent. of her people now being engag-
ed in agriculture, began, as stated in
the report of the Fabian Society,
when cheap ocean transport and the
extension of Agriculture in America
and elsewhere led to a tremendous
fail in prices" "The effect on income
: derived from the land has been catas-
trophic". Farmers capital was
largely swept away in the early years
of the decline and even now they live
close and have little"
We have been able to ship agricul-
tural products to England and sell
them at prices, which have ruined the
English farmer, although farm
wages in that country are much less
than here, because we were merely
converting, at trifiing cost, the virgin
wealth of our soil into grain, by agri-
cultural methods which could only be
temporary.
The temporary character of such a
system is shown by the fact that
much of our eastern farm land has
been depleted and abandoned, while,
some farmers are leaving the middle
west for the new, rich lands of Can
ada, where they will continue the
process of soil-robbing.
The American farmer is being con-
stantly urged to adopt more inten-
sive system of agriculture, but, he
well knows, that intensive agriculture
is merely the application of morel la
Dor to the same ambunt of land, and,
that intensive agriculture, in the true
sense, will not be possible unless the
cost of labor declines or the cost of
food-stuffs advances greatly. The
American farmer produces more food
per man and less per acre than the
farmer of any other country. 1t is
not difficult to see that, as the fertil-
ity of our soil declines, the cost of
maintaining the same crops per acre
increases.
The farmer is facing, in the immed-
late future, most trying situation.
His profits, already small, will be en-
tirelY wiped out, by the further de-
cline In the fertility of the soil, by
the greater need for fertility restor-
ing methods, such as the use of fer
tilizers, by the increasing wages he
must pay and the increased labor he
must employ, and by the increased
cost of all that he must buy, unless
he can secure much higher prices for
his products.
The loss in the fertility Of our soil,
which has reached such alarming
proportions in some places, is being
partially met by the use of COM
mercial fertilizers. This use of fer
tilizers has added greatly to the cost
I Of crop production, as you all, of
course, well know.
During the years from 1880 to 1900
the quantity Of fertilizer, used by our
farmers, doubled. From 1899 to 1909
the quantity of fertilizer required to
produce the crop increased 115 per
cent. In 1899 fertilizers. cost our
farmers about fifty-three and one-half
million dollars, while in 1909, the
fertilizer bill was nearly one hundred
and fifteen millions. This was the
fertilizer bill for little more than a
quarter of our farms 1851 per cent. J,
these being the farms in the east,
since the western farms have scarcely
begun to buy fertilizer. When all
,of the land, under cultivation, re-
ceives fertilizer, at the rate of two
dollars worth per acre, which must be
soon, our fertilizer bill will be one
billion dollars. Practically, the only
source from which we can secure such
an amount of fertilizer, as we shall
soon need, is the phosphate rock of
our southern states and it is of SUI
preme importance that these deposits
be conserved, and yet, as Cyril G.
Hopkins says, I'VE are exporting each
year for a paltry five million dollars
enough phosphate to raise ], 100000
600 bushels of wheat, or twice our
annual crop"
/ have spoken of the depreciation
IF the land as n factor in the rising