The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-22

Similar conditions prevail in Vienna.
Another set OF our Governments
statistics shows that during the last
ten years the acreage in the United
States devoted TO agriculture has in
creased 81 per cent. and agricultural
products have increased &c per cent,
but consumption during the same Pc
Rod has grown so per cent. n startling
increase which Is almost three times "a
great as the enlargement of cultivated
area and almost double the increased
agricultural production.
The Washington bureau OF statis-
tics stated last June that in ten wears
all commodities. including agricultural
products. increased 81 per cent. in cost,
but separating the products OF the
farm from all other commodities the
increasing price Of these products
amounts to an average of 81 per cent,
This state Of affairs, as may be seen,
is alarmingly out of proportion. The
solution would seem To lie in a greater
development Of the nations agricul-
tural resources.
In Washington the agricultural
commissioner of n great railroad sys-
tenn SiAlu liSl week lnil NDtIt WIZ
300, 900 Poles in Chicago alone who
were discontented with the struggle
in the city. because while lahoring
early and late, and denied sufficient
food, they found themselves in debt. or
at least with no savings. at the end Of
the year. He prophesied an increasing
desire among just such persons AZ
these Poles to secure cheap, small
farms where industry would he re-
wardcd with three meals n day n
where progress in some accumulation
, would he the record at the years end.
| They were beginning TO learn, he said,
that THE highway to the perfect con-
dition must be fashioned from the COM
mon Clod under foot" that the ON
servation OF land and its improvement
10 the highest point of productivity
promised by scientific intelligence and
practical experiment spell the Alpha
and omega of happy homes-no less
than Of prosperous nations.
The logical conclusion to be drawn
is that the farmer is the only simon
pure. unorganiZed, unattached demo-
crat left among us.
our ~forefathers along the Atlantic
seaboird defined their position geo.
graphically as ten miles from h sea
into the Wilderness" Then he coast
was o~vercrowded and the mighty
"crossing' began, over the rivers into
Ohio and the dark and bloody ground
of Kentucky. The Louisiana and
Gadsden purchases relieved human
! congestion for the time. Abraham LIN
" 5000 tho nratrta StltpS AT the
close of the civil war, When President
Roosevelt signed the national irriga-
ton act, to bring under cultivation the
vast reaches of N desert by means
OF dam, reservoir and ditch, he opened
the next act Of the mighty agricultural
drama. which IL to be making the most
OF every rood of the land we have
since the virgin territory Is virtually
gone.
The viewpoint Of the midcontinen'
farmer IL very different from that o
the farmer nearer the seacnast, Th'
farmer OF the West believes 81
thoroughly In irrigation that he Il
/ SAID to prefer it to the Cd fashioned
shower method, This midcontinen
farmer works out his salvation by
irrigation, ana III So'h' "'H''"'S w
what Is wrongly called dry farming
IA better term fdf'the method beinj
"sclent nc farminG'-conservlng AM
making the most OF the sinai! rainfall
Of The semi-arid region.
All the grains and fruits an
yoRctables produced in the East ar
needed to supply the ever increasing
local population. The country there
fore must face the problem vi a hug