Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-05-04

+ II ~ N~-~'
I'll X, raw fact of a gradually increasing
[}SJ LIZ scarcity of the prime necessaries OF
EY Fl life Agricultural figures just pub
E5s1 Isl ished in Rome by the international
~. ITSl Institute of Agriculture show that the
process of scrapping the most essen
tial of all our foods, grain, goes on apace.
Steadily the arabic land of the world shrinks
as the area under permanent grass, often eu-
phemism for land that is derelict extends It's
frontiers. At the present moment the United
States is dependent on imported supplies for an
appreciate amount of wheat and for different
cereals consumed in this country.
There is not only 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 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 1t was
a year ago. OF course, the war has had much
to do with the depletion of our stores and con-
sequent rise in price. But even granting that
the demand has been phenomenal, the fact re-
mains that farmers are not producing as
much they should.
Evidently something is wrong with 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
of much fertility of the soil. In every state there
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 it. Many farmer says, as he gazes
his broad acres: Il remember when 1 boy
that field fine for corn but It's only fit
for pasture" But If he only knew, that field is
capable of producing just as much it did
in the old days; it is 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 SEEM
ing miracles with worn-out land down Indiana
way.
Farm Journals agricultural colleges and the
United States department of agriculture have
been doing 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 hundred
dollars per acre on fertilizer, crushed limestone
etc. and In the end improve the land But 1t
lakes practical, successful farmer like Mr.. Smith
to demonstrate how field never known to have
on it crop of any value" could be made within
one year to produce Y bushels of per acre
1t cost of $3.50 per acre, aside from labor. The
how and why of 1t all has been put into book.
How to Grow 100 Bushels of Corn WORKOUT
Soil" which Mr.. Smith has dedicated to the Amer
can farmer. And he believes that any other
armer who will follow his teachings will be
equally successful. 1t all sounds like a fairy
story but Mr.. Smith has facts to back up all his
statements. Furthermore he is known nationally
or the remarkable experiments he has made.
In 1906 Mr. Smith purchased farm that had
he reputation of being of the poorest in In
lana. 1t had been kicked and buffeted about as
rading stock Each no sooner got into
of it when he found he had purchased
gold brick, and never rested until he succeeded
D unloading 1t upon some other victim 1t never
eemed to occur to any Of its owners that the
arm had simply been handled by soil robbers and
-as paying the penalty by withdrawing its boun-
=. Mr. Smith purchased the farm because of its
heapness, location and possibilities, and was
iven the laugh for so doing
The entire farm in its early history was COW
red with large walnut, poplar oak and other TIM
err the timber on the sandy land having been as
eavy as on the other portion of the farm The
nd was a portion of an Indiana reserve, set
part by the government to the Indians In 1918
nd by the Indians sold again in 1885, and was
cared more than 60 years ago, and for many
AIRS produced large crops. 1t had always been
rmed upon the principle of getting out of 1t all
"a can each year and putting nothing back into
e SOIL Under this system of farming the soil
Id become so poor that in the best season II
oduced but Is to 20 bushels of corn to the acre,
bile in bad seasons the crop was an entire fall
Mr. Smith had read in one of the bulletins of
e department of agriculture that the value OF an
re of SANDY vetch" powed under equiva
n TO putting into the ground $50 or $40 worth
commercial fertilizer, and straightway decided
FRY II on his farm. Accordingly, ne ordered
ough seed to plant two acres,
The seed was planted in August upon the