Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1916-06-01


the friend of educational institutions and the benefactor of
host of young
Mr.. Hills chief claim to gratitude of the nation how
ever was his early appreciation of the necessity of develop
ing the soil as the solid foundation of the prosperity of his
ing the cony agricultural interests and against
time of need in the future He foresaw the time when
Americas very existence as republic would depend upon
her soil
Mr. Hill built his railroads by degrees and he developed
the farming tributary to his system he went along
Soon after Mr. Hill opened the Great Northern route to the
Pacific he began to send out trains equipped for the
how to make the of the soil He realized that pros
porous farms mean prosperous villages and Cities and that
all these meant prosperity for the transportation lines
He truly Empire builder"
Mr. Hill also of the first to call attention to the
and in exploiting their natural resources instead of
ing the same. The dawn Of the century found him
Minnesota Agricultural society in St. Paul in 1904 he called
attention to conditions which would inevitably exist in half
century when the population of this country will have
grown to than 2OOO0OOOO
When President Roosevelt called the first conference of
governors throughout the United States the White
IN 1908 which was attended others by the late Gov
Fletcher Proctor and President Joseph A. DeBoer of the
of things that Mr. Hill should be of the foremost figures
IN that conservation From that this
ad to- preach the supreme necessity of conserving
Americas natural resources and developing the soil
One of Mr. Hills favorte pleas that the our
resources is simple and fixed From the sea- the mine the
forest the SOIL must be gathered everything that
the te OF man. Upon the wealth that these supply must
IesS put also his continued existence EARTH
Mr. Hill showed that the seas resources furnish us
less than five per cent of food supply The forests of
TINS country the product of centuries of growth fast dis
appearing We are using annually 500 feet board
per CAPITA as against of sixty feet for all Europe
we are consuming annually three or four times much
timber as the forest growth Our supply
varieties will be exhausted
Our mines, unlike other natural resources are in
capable OF restoration or recuperaton Once exhausted they
are gone forever The mineral wealth in the earth
can be taken out only When fuel and iron become
scarce and high priced civilization will as would
suffer by the gradual exhaustion of other necessities
Mr. Hill showed that the only remaining resource for
the soil ITSELF The whole this continent
aggregatng 5oooooooo of usveyed land has been
there for the next fifty years? That is tremendous
problem How big it is does not readily appear until you
stop to consider the matter in all its phases.
erosion the washing of the fertile surface into streams and
Professor Carver Harvard years ago that ag
cuture as independent industry able in itself to support
setts. New Hampshire Vermont, and Maine Hill en-
phasized the point that the fertile lands of the
were also rapidly being exhausted
The figures quoted really alarming when stops
to consider the large population the of United
States must sustain in the distant future say nothing
of export trade Ninnesotas wheat has made name all
over the world yet her yield for years
was only little twelve bushels per acre. and the aver
age Tor the whole country 1875 bushels of wheat per
WINE austria and Hungary each produced II bushels
of Great Britain and Ireland per acre Other grain
showed corlespondngy small averages in this country
compared with the old world
Mr. Hills diagnosis of the situation was that our agr-
cultural lands nave been abused in two by single crop
ping year after year and by negectg fertilization The
remedies rotation of crops use of fertilizers as
tones for the soil
What Mr. Hill held regarding soil fertilization NAV we'll
De taken into serious consideration by those farmers of
mont VINO are selling their milk for transportation the
cities instead of separating their milk and selling the butter
rat only feeding the milk their farms Mr. Hill
Nature has provided cattle to with the land There
as much money in live stock there is in grain Looked
at IN any way there in live stock money for dairy
products money for beef for the increase
and most money of all where every particle manure
saved and applied to the land"
While Mr.. Hill great master of TRANSFORMATION did
not think it waste of time to go problems like these
for the benefit OF the individual
problem from the staesmans point of vew future OF
the nation He asked how the people of this country in the
next hundred to live if the of increase in pop
ulatlon continues to grow at present Indicated without
any increase in our rate Of soil production
That is not promising prospect The more YOU study
it the less inviting becomes With 1000 900 people Iv
ing where 1OOOOOO0O living where food to be
tanned? If the cost of living is high enough to make
plain what of the cost Of the necessaes of life fifty years
hundred years from now
But Mr. Hill saw further than that He showed
that no people felt the pinch Of poverty long time
without striking at their political institutions and gov.
erhmen He quoted Lord Macauleys prediction that the
time would when 'mutudes of people, of whom
has had half breakfast expects than half dinner