The Washington herald., 1917-10-27
1917 CROP WILL
HELP FARMERS
Holland Recalls ]. ]. Hills
Admonition Regarding
Harvest Value.
By HOLLAND.


At-the time. Of one Of the latest
visits Of. James ]. Hill to New York.
he was asked whether he still held
his belief expressed in an address de-
ltvered some years ago in the North
west. that the farm products Of the
United States should be of sufficient
quantity and value to yield each
year at least $1,000, ,ooo,0o In reply
Mr.. Hill said that when he thus
spoke the prices for farm products
were low In some cases abnormally
low, SO that the aggregate money
value OF the farm products OF the
year preceding the address was
about $500. 100000. Low prices and
small production explained the COM
paratively small aggregate received
by the farmers In that year and in
the preceding years for these pro-
ducts. Nevertheless he was confident
that with improved farming methods,
with the cultivation of virgin soil
and the opening up OF new and read
lily available tracts of land to cul-
tivation, there was no reason why
the American farmers should not
harvest In single year crops Of the
aggregate value OF s15.OO0, 100000.
Mr.. Hill then went on to say that
1t is vital that the wheat harvests
OF the United States be greatly in
! creased because unless wheat pro-
duction advances simultaneously with
the growth of the population. the
time Is not distant, perhaps not more
han twenty-five years away, when
|he people Of the United States will
Iced and use all the wheat that is
harvested in a single year unless the
area Is greatly increased and the
soil Is persuaded to yield. larger
crops.
1917 Harvest Rich.
Were Mr.. Hill alive he perhaps
would read the meaning behind the
almost ineonceivably great aggregate
of the money value OF the farm pro-
ducts of the United States for 1871.
which the Department OF Agriculture
at Washington and the government
reports which refer to farm products
up to October list, make public. Were
the liberty loan, or, as some are be-
ginning to call it, the victory loan,
to be increased four times so that the
aggregate which the government ask
ed the people to lend was twenty
billion dollars nevertheless the money
value OF the farm products harvest
ed in this calender year would be a
billion and a half in excess of that
loan Of twenty billions.
OF course these stupendous figures,
unmatched by the reports, made by
the farmers of any other nation of
the aggregate money value of their
product for a single year, reflect in
part high prices. But high prices
alone would not completely explain
this enormous new wealth which the
soil is yielding in this year. or there
has been a considerable increase in
the cultivation of farm land, and
in many cases the soil has yielded
larger crops than ever before. Some
Of it is due to the foresight of rail-
way managers. Mr.. Hills great
Northern railway system, with its in
tricate branches and feeders stretch
ing far away into remote wheat lands,
made increased cultivation possible,
although weather conditions which the
farmers could not control caused a
falling of in the aggregate of the
wheat. So, too, a. ]. Earring when
president of the, st. Paul railroad sys-
TEN and while he was perfectinS the
Puget Sound extention, cade possible
greatly increased production of grains,
especially wheat in Montana, which
has now become one of the great
wheat-producing States.
Speeding Up Agriculture.
Agriculture was speedeG up all over
the United States so that both guam
tity, the abnormal price, and the Ger
tainty Of a ready market, explain
why the Department of Agriculture
at Washington was able 10 report a
few days ago that S2l. $50 900, 600 was
the money value of the farm prod
ucts.
The effect of this colossal aggre-
gate product of the soil, all of it
being new wealth, upon business con-
ditions and probably by and by upon
\ security market values. Is inevitably
Ito be very important. Upon this. pro-
duction basis will stand much Of the
commercial and industrial activity Of
! the United States in 1918.
High prices and an enormous III
/crease in the quantity Of all the prod