Imperial Valley press., 1914-02-18
BACK TO SOIL HAS
ROOM FOR GROWTH

| washington, FEB. 18.-Ihe back tC
the soir' movement still has plenty oil
room to grow according to figures just
made public by the department OF
agriculture which show that there are
today 100000 acres of tillable land
in the United States which has never
been turned by plow. In fact, only
27 per cent of the land of this country
capable of being farmed is now under
cultivation. The remaining 73 per cent
does not include 100000 acres which
are -tillable, but valuable for pas
ture or fruit growing.
The most thoroughly cultivated
states are Illinois and Iowa, where for
every acre titled there is 1.6 untitled.
Indiana is next with a ratio of one to
five; in New York it is one acre titled
to "a untitled, and that proportion is
general throughout New England Ari-
zona has the greatest proportion of
untitled land, having 76.7 available
acres idle for every acre upon which
crops are now raised. In New Mexico
it is one to 31.2; in Nevada one to
28.3 and in Montana one to 25. Cali
fornia's rating shows one to 6.1.
The entire United States, excluding
foreign territory, contains about
1,900,000,000 acres. OF this about go
per cent or 100000 acres, is es-
timated to be tillable, including that
which, though not tillable at present,
may be made so by clearing, irrigating
or draining. About nineteen per cent is
fit only for fruit or forage crops and
Fl per cent will probably never be Of
any use from an agricultural stand
point.
An extensive study of methods of
preventing the shrinkage of cattle
shipped on the hoof has just been con-
cluded by the department of agricul-
ture. The methods promise to save
hundreds of dollars to the farmers and
stock raisers. Heretofore it has not
been uncommon for a steer to reach
the stock yards weighing from 60 to rs
pounds less than when it left the farm,
but by proper feeding this may be ma
terially reduced.
In 265 shipments of cattle, compris-
ing 10000 head, the loss ranged from
2.14 to z per cent, depending on the
length of time the cattle were en- route,
the treatment they received en- route,
and what they had in their stomachs
when they started. Steers show less
shrinkage than cows, but the difference
is not as great as many shippers sup
pose.
of cattle are to be in transit "a
hours or longer, it is a good plan to
feed about two bales of nice bright
hay for each carload few hours be-
fore loading" is the advice of the de-
partment "Thcre is no way of entirely
preventing shrinkage, but by judi
cious care in the handling and feed
ing the cattle just previous to ship
ping the shrinkage may be lessened.
The shrinkage of fed cattle does not
differ greatly from that of range cat
tie fed for equal periods of time. Cat
tie fed on silage have a large gross
shrinkage but usually 'fill' so well
when fed at the market that the net
shrinkage is small. Pulp fed cattle
shrink more in transit than any other
class of cattle and also water and
rest is preferred to the use of "feed
and water cars"
Efforts to dodge the boil weevil by
planting cotton late have been proven
futile by the government bureau OF
entomology, in spite of the theory that
prevails very generally through the
south. In fact, the most recent expert
ments along this line show that late
crops are a decided disadvantage. In
one field in Louisiana last year 1125
pounds were picked from an acre that
had been planted early, while in an ad-
joining field that had been planted late
the yield was but $50 pounds per acre.
In another instance a field planted
May % produced but one fourth OF a
bale per acre. though in 1911 when