American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1914-09-24
FARMERS OPPORTUNITY
AND RESPONSIBILITY.
Start Now to Prepare for the Wars
Demand on Our Next Years Crops.

Harvester Company of America.)
If ever America puts its hand to the
nlow in its effort to feed the world, il
has assumed that responsibility now.
MOI since the narrowing days follow
ing our W strife of the sixties have
the tillable acres of this country faced
such a possible drain upon their boun-
~tifulness. Without even dimly pro-
phesying the duration of the war now
raging, we are already assured of the
fact that next year this country will
be the %storehouse of the world. Every
farm owner, every tenant and every
s~hare-worker will have his part TO
play in fulfilling this great response
bility. No matter how remote his res
idence, he will hear Europe's call for
beef, bacon and bread and on the am
cunt he has for sale will depend not
only his satisfaction of having served
himself but the additional satisfaction
of having served his fellow men. Big
crops, much stock. many hogs next
year will mean big profits.
1t is thus that the American farmer
begins his fall work with two strings
to his bow. With one hand he is res
cuing the p%erishing and with the other
he is reaching out for tangible en-
c-ouragement toward a better bank ac-
count and a better home.
Now is the Time to Start.
Now is the opportunity and this
month is the time to lay his founda-
ton. There are two lines along which
he should plan his work, but only n
line upon which he should work his
plan. First he should utilize every
available part of his land, and second
he should strivt to raise the average
yield of his farm per acre. There will
be no danger of over production for
the crops this fall will be none too
large. The man who has a big yield
will find a big market. But to get this
yield means a better kind of farming.
Now would be a good time to break
away from the old-fashioned ideas
about the moon from some other ideas
about shallow blowing and some old
fashioned carelessness in cultivating;
and some old-fashioned theories in
regard to seeding. In those parts of
the country where fall blowing is done
the way the seed bed is made and the
way the sowing is done this fall will
determine the crop per acre ext year
more than next years rainfall, hot
winds or frost. In an experiment not
long ago, described by F. L. Peterson
of the University farm at Davis, Cal
i~fornia, he says:
LAS the pressure for supplies be-
comes greater, II becomes more evil
dent that the world cannot afford
large farms skinned over with care
less culture. In an actual experiment
a gain of 20 per cent which was made
in the productiveness of a certain area
100 per rent was found to be due to
better blowing, so per cent to better
cultivation and the rest TO better
seed"
A lesson or two like that in every
community would soon work its way
into farm operation in such a way that
several costly practices sanctioned by
time and custom would become in a
short time as historical as grading
wheat and threshing it with a fail
are now. The great economic law
which makes a mans land profitable
is not so much the price he gets for
his produce as it is the difference be-
tween this price and the amount spent
in producing this produce. The above
experiment was apropos the tractor
A mechanical way of plowing-a me-
chanical way of m~assaging the land
of drilling and of sowing the seed.
In the cost of raising a crop, Just the
same as the cost in making carpets
shoes or wagons hand power and ani
nal W cannot compete with me-
chanical power. The mechanically
prepared seed bed not only costs less
in its preparation but it gives forth
more in its harvest.
War VIII Make Horses Too Costly.
Oats and oil are in the throes OF a
little war of their own, just the same
as the human back once combat'eo
with the reaper knife. This strife Is
fast becoming more acute because the
already inflated price of horses is be-
ing accentuated every day by the num-
Der being sold out of the country Tor
cavalry mounts TO be used abroad.
The drain upon the American horse
supply will soon be such that Wheh-
ever possible mechanical c~ontrivances
will be used to do their work. We're
We to begin at once. it will require
five years in which to replenish the
drain which the war has ALREADY