Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-06-13
Needed Lots of Fertilizer.

the cost of those we have lett up almost
to a prohibitive flugre. Another was ehe
cost of fertilizer.
Needed Lots of Fertilizer.
NV little farm had been operated as so
many farms are operated in TINS country
taking every thing out and putting MOTH
ing back-until the soil almost had been
depleted of the elements of fertility.
bought all the stable manure l could and
Supplemented it with commercial ferti-
lizer, but can't get any adequate supply
of humus or vegetable matter into the
soil until another year. l can't hope. after
paving a double fertilizer bill, to get
more than half a crop But IN taxing q
rundown place. as ! did, one must LOOK
to the future. Next year my fertilizer
bill will be cut in two, ana snoulu set
twice as large a crop.
| had often read of farms being ruined
by tenants, and couldn't understand why
such a state of things should exist
know now The tenant who has only
one-year lease has no incentive to build
up or even maintain. soil fertility. He
isn't sure of continued tenancy. and al
ways can move when he has robbed the
farm he is on as long as robbery pays
Ideal agricultural conditions OF course
would be for every man to own his own
land: but in the absence of this the rem
edy would seem to be in longtime leases
or some form of contract that requires
the tenant to use a certain amount OF fer
tiliZer, grow cover crops and follow a
crop rotation in which legumes had a
part
We talked all this over very wisely at
Sunny Knoll Sunday, and l was listened
to as an oracle might be. Six months ago
/ hardly knew whether legume grew on
trees or was some kind of a farm tool.
but I've been reading lot during the
past half year and l can talk now like
one of the experts over at the Depart
ment of Agriculture. l get away with it
all right when I am talking to city
friends, but ! have a suspicion that a
great many of the things I have read,
like the securities referred to by an
eminent financier, are undigested. -
Stock Farming Looks Good.
l have had a great deal Of pleasure in
my garden, along with the hard work.
and am very proud of tor was proud of
it until the COW got in and ate off my
corn and peas and other stuff. But if ever
undertake to make living at farming
market gardening will not be my chief
activity The work is TOO hard. While we
were yet in the city we had visions of
enormous profits to be made from chick
ems, but poultry doesn't look so much
like an easy money proposition as it
as ours have cost to date have to lay
a powerful sight of eggs to show profit.
| believe. now that l am endowed with
the wisdom of three months actual ex-
perience in the country, that the branch
of farming l would like best would be live
stock. l don't think would exactly fancy
running a dairy farm. as a dairyman is
required always to be on the job with
out ever chance to get off for a day,
but the breeding of cattle raising hogs
would about fill the bill
The only trouble about a stock farm is
that man can't start one with shoe
| string. But some of these days, unless
the American people lose their liking fol
| beef, hundreds Of thousands of acres OF
| the cheap lands in Virginia and Maryland
| will be feeding and fattening cattle fol
the eastern markets. Chicago will lose
| its pre-eninence as the cattle market OF
| the world. and a new Packingtown will
arise down on the lower Potomac OF
some of the other tidewater rivers, where
| there is water transportation to Balti.
| more, New York Philadelphia and Bos-
| ton. the great eastern distributing centers
| This was one of the things we discussed
after dinner Sunday. Will Turner. who is
| an imaginative sort of cuss predicted
| that the time was not far distant when
| capital in the mass would take up agri.
| cultural production. just as it has taker
| up other big business. and orga nize anG
systematic 1t. He commended there Is nc
| logical reason why there should not be q
billioin-doiar farming corporation, Just as
| there is Il billion-dollar steel trust anC
| he argued that the cheap lands on the
waters tributary to Chesapeake bay fur.
nished an opportunity for safe and profit
able investment that capital would no,
| long overlook.
Need of Cheaper Food.
Sounds reasonable. doesn't it? One
| thlns Is certain if America is going to
keep in the lead in the great world race
| Tor trade the men who toll in the mills
| OF Pittsburgh and in the mines and
| factories the country over have got to
! nave bread and meat and potatoes
cheaper than they are getting them now,
| America. with constantly ascending
scale OF wages, cant compete with Ger
| many and Japan. to say nothing of
| China. when its present economic reyolu-
! ton has progressed little farther The
| American workingman isn't going to cut
his scale of living to few hand<uls OF
| rice a day, so 1t Is up to some one to pro-
vide him cheaper food.
| Ii seems to me this is a problem fol-
| the very biggest of big business to
grapple with. There isn't any chance
that agriculture as now organized will
solve it. The tillable area in the United
States is not increasing. nor can 1t be
| increased to any considerable extent
And, despite all the Department of Agri
culture. the agricultural colleges and the
state experiment stations are doing, the
to any marked extent. Yet the popula
ton of the country IS going forward by
leaps and bounds. and all but an in
significant proportion of the added mil
lions are non-producers of food. Some
one has got to find way to feed tRi;