The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1917-04-28

E| Fl life. Agricultural figures just pub
[t%I 5&I lished in Rome by the international
EELLfSl Institute of Agriculture show that the
process of %scrapping the most essen
dal of all our foods, grain, goes on apace.
Steadily the arabic land of the world shrinks
as the area under permanent grass, often a en-
phemism for land that is derelict, extends its
frontiers. At the present moment the United
States is dependent on imported supplies for an
appreciate amount of wheat and fer different
cereals consumed in this country.
There is not only a tremendous shortage of
wheat in the United States today, but of corn
also, as Is testified by the price of $1.20 per
bushel paid in a number of instances recently for
the latter grain. This is about three times as
much as the farmer has received for 1t in normal
times. Figures posted by the Chicago board of
trade indicate that the visible supply of corn in
this country today is less than half what it was
u year ago. OF course, the war has had much
to do with the depletion of our stores, and a con-
sequent rise in price. But even granting that
the demand has been phenomenal, the fact re-
mains that our farmers are not producing as
much corn as they should.
Evidently something is wrong with our system
of growing corn. Most farmers understand the
Importance of good seed for planting, and the
majority of them employ scientific methods of cul-
tvation. The trouble, then, would appear to lie
with the soil.
Everyone knows that, Internationally perhaps.
most farms in this country have been robbed
VI uC leTlully OI IL SOIL. III every STATE tnere
are thousands of farms which formerly produced
big crops but are now so worn out that the land
will not return enough to pay for the labor of
filling 1t. Many a farmer says, as he gazes over
his broad acres: 81 remember when 1 was a boy
that field was fine for corn, but now it's only fit
for pasture" But If he only knew, that field is
capable of producing just as much corn as It did
in the old days it is even probable that it could
be made to break the records established in its
earlier prime. This, at any rate, is what William
c.. Smith, an Indiana farmer, says, and Mr.. Smith
ought to know, for he has performed some SEEM
ing miracles with WORKOUT land down Indiana
way.
Farm journals, agricultural colleges and the
United States department of agriculture have
been doing a wonderfully good work in telling the
farmer how to increase the fertility of his soil,
but Mr.. Smith, apparently, has discovered the
easiest, simplest and most inexpensive way of all.
Almost anyone can tell how to spend a hundred
dollars per acre on fertilizer, crushed limestone,
etc., and in the end improve the land. But It
takes a practical, successful farmer like Mr.. Smith
to demonstrate how a field "never known to have
on 1t a crop of any value" could be made within
one year to produce 72 bushels of corn per acre
at a cost of $3.50 per acre, aside from labor. The
how and why of it all has been put into a book,
"How to Grow 100 Bushels of Corn on Worn-Out
Soil," which Mr.. Smith has dedicated to the Amer
lean farmer. And he believes that any other
farmer who will follow his teachings will be
equally successful. It all sounds like a fairy
story, but Mr.. Smith has facts to back up all his
statements. Furthermore, he is known nationally
for the remarkable experiments he has made.
In 1905, Mr.. Smith purchased a farm that had
the reputation of being one of the poorest In In
diana. It had been kicked and buffeted about as
trading stock. Each owner no sooner got into
possession of 1t when he found he had purchased
a gold brick, and never rested until he succeeded
In unloading 1t upon some other victim. 1t never
seemed to occur to any of its owners that the
farm had simply been handled by soil robbers and
was paying the penalty by Withdrawing its boun-
ty. MI. Smith purchased the farm because Of its
cheapness, location and possibilities, and was
given the laugh for so doing.
The, entire farm in its early history was COW
cred with large walnut, poplar, oak and other tim
Der, the timber on the sandy land having been as
heavy as on the other portion of the farm. The
land was a portion of an Indiana reserve, set
apart by the government to the Indians in 1878
and by the Indians sold again in 1885, and was
cleared more than 60 years ago, and for many
years produced large crops. n had always been
fermed upon the principle of getting out Of it all
you can each year and putting nothing back into
the soil. Under this system Of farming the soil
had become so poor that In the best season 1t
produced but is to 20 bushels of corn to the acre,
while In bad seasons the crop was an entire fail
ure.
Mr.. Smith had read in one of the bulletins of
the department of agriculture that the value Of an
acre of SANDY Vetch" plowed under was equiva-
lent to putting into the ground $40 or $40 worth
of commercial fertilizer, and straightway decided
to try II on his farm. Accordingly, he ordered
enough seed to plant two acres.
The seed was planted in August. upon the