The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-12-18

sum ption. We can build a battleship, Tor an automobile (excepting the tires) a railroad or a factory entirely from the products of American mines and forests.
 l Fertilizers. To replenish the soil we have phos- phorus in abundance, potash is known to exist in the deposits of Searles Lake, l California, which however, is not yet 1comm mercial1ys available. and in alunite " here it is combined with a1unin urn and deposits of which are found in several States and nitrogen can be ex- tracted from the air by cheap hydro electric power, as is now done in Ger many, Norway, and elsewhere. So that we can feed the earth and keep l it sustained.
 I Climate.
 l Our soil and climate are so varied that we can produce all the grains, fruits, vegetables and f1bers known to the Temperate Zone. and some found 1 in the semi t-tropics-
 Water Power.
 And to crown all these we have wa ter power that can be made to gene rate perhaps as much as 60,000,O0O horsepower.
 Public Lands.
 The public domain is rapidly grow | ing less, which means that it is being occupied and used. Of the two hun dred and odd million acres left, 12,- 900 0OOf acres have already been c1as- sified as coal bearing, over 4,60o, 900 as probably carrying oil, and 2,6oO,- 900 as phosphate lands. The most valuable discovery made in recent years as affecting the public domain is that the se1ni-arid regions may be- come abundant1y productive under dry-farning methods.
 Alaska.
 The Territory of Alaska, containing perhaps 4o0. .O00. .000 acres, is now the great body of bublic domain. It is heavily mineralized and is a. land of there has recently erected a mill of 5000 tons daily capacity, with ore in sight to run this mill for 50 years.
 The Desert.
 The waters that flow idly to the sea could be made to support not less than 50,00O o0G people if turned upon the land that otherwise will remain pasture land or altogether worthless. The demonstration has been given that more fruitful than those where the rainfalIis abundant Land and water we have; the problem Of bringing them together is one only of money.
 Scientists.
 When the wal in Europe shut off certain chemical supplies, one of our chemists, MT. Rittrnan. found a new process which has been given to the public by which benzo1 and toluo1, the foundation of anilihe dyes and ex- plosives, and gasoline may be made from crude petroleum. MT. Parsons and Nil, Moore have devised and prov ed a process, for the reduction, of ra-s dium from carnotite ores. An oil ex-s pert, MT. Pollard, was put to the task of saving the billions of feet of gas wasting daily into the air from the oil wells of Oklahoma. and was suc- cessful. MT. Cottrell has devised a. method of taking solids and liquids out of shelter smoke, such as sulphuric. acid. arsenic, zinc. and lead.
 Inventors.
 During the past 50 years the people of the United States have uttered two thirds of all the revolutionary epoch making inventions of the world rang ing from the telephone and the in candescent lamp to Wright's aeroplane and high-speed steel. Each day we. issue an average of 200 letters patent to American inventors, and the num- Der of inventions is increasing with the years.
 Children.
 There are over 2e.00O,0o0 boys and girls in the public schools of the Unit ed States.
 These, then, are tfie assets of the United, States, as revealed in but this one epartment-1ands and waters and engineers, and a new generation coming on which will add still, further to the adventurous annals of peace. What has been our policy with respect to these? How may they be the more highly put to use? These q1estions are seen sto be more vital than ever before. And at the outset let me say that I find no need for g change of policy, but only for it's expansion. The Era of Splendid Giving. We have given of our resources as no people ever did before or ever can again. Within 50 years we gave in subsidies to OUT railroads public lands that exceeded in size a territory seven times as large as. the State of Penn syIvarlia. We have given to the States, for the sustaining of their schools and other public institutions an amount that our records do not accurately state, but this we know, that West ern States were given over 67. .000s0O0 acres In addition the Federal Gov ernn1ent gave to the States all the swamp and overhowed public lands within their borders, amounting to t64soO0, ,o00 acres by toughest approx irraation, upon condition that they used the proceeds to reclaim the lands. a condition which it may be idle to state has been only in part compiled with. Indeed, the peoples of the world were called in and rendered homes, until now. out of an acreage within Ethe United States of a full billion and a hair of acres of public domain we have left as public lands, subject to disposal as nomesteads and otherwise, hess than 280,100.o0o acres. not one- half of which it may safely be said, will ever prove to be cultivab1e. When the grants to the States are satisfied the amount given over will be dfmin- ished by over 15.O0O.Oo0 acres. There passed out of this office last year 61.-