The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1919-01-31
LETTER FROM STATS CAPITAL
(By A. T. Edmonston.)

jefferson City, Mo-, Jan. 25.-Tht
problem of supplying profitable EN-
ployment to Missouri army of demo.
bilized soldiers and all men, young anC
old, now jobless because of the closing
down of war munitions plants, mines
and other industries affected by the
coming of peace, will easily anC
quickly be solved if the United States
Government steps in and purchases
the 1885, 700 acres of unimproveC
swamp, overflow and cut-over wooded
lands in Missouri, suitable for tilling
and stockraising, divide it into small
farms, and proportion the farms
among these desirable inhabitants and
then supply the funds needed for inn
provements and for agricultural ma
chinery and implements. This area
proportional and allotted in 40-aere
tracts, would create 283,49 40-acre
tracts, a number sufficient, not alone
to care for the $4,000 soldiers Mis-
souri, supplied for the worldwide
but also to be divided among men and
women now cut out of employment in
the State, and yet leave enough de-
sirable land to be placed on the mar
ket after all has been cleared and i'm
proved by demobilized soldiers, sold,
and the proceeds used to partly, if
not wholly, defray the costs of the en-
tire project.
Information just received by the
Missouri Bureau Of Labor Statistics
from the Reclamation Service of the
United States Department of the In
terror, is that the acreage of unim-
proved land in Missouri, suitable for
agricultural or horticultural, or stock
raising purposes, is 1l,339,700 acres.
divided between 100000 acres Of
cut-over land, known as wooded
land"; 100000 acres of permanent
swamp land, and 1,439,700 acres of
land subject to periodical overflow.
The number of farms in Missouri,
January /, 1919, is placed at 2S5,0O0,
varying in size from three acres to
1000 acres and over. The utilization
Of these cut-over lands and the areas
now in swamps, or subject to periodi-
cal overflow, and its allotment into 40
acre farms would nearly double the
States quota of farms. With scien-
tiic and intense attention the then
81 1898 farms would produce three
times the present volume of farm
crops, poultry, livestock and fruit.
Missouri's land area amounts to
1895, $50 acres, and with 11,399,500
acres embravcd in swamp lands, the
areas subject to periodical overflow,
and all cut-over wooded section it
means that over a fourth of this vast
ness, nearly all highly suitable for
cultivation is not put to that use now.
Corn is often planted on some of the
unprotected land subject to periodical
overflow but there is always danger
from a sudden summer or fall flood,
that, regardless of it's high fertility
and great productiveness, the occas-
ional loss of the expended labor and
seed, not considering the crop, has
caused farmers in late years, to neg
lect planting bottom areas.
The works, alone, of building sub
stantial levees to protect the 1,439,-
700 acres of river bottom lands, the
and draining of the 10000
acres of swamp lands, and the clearing
VI tile o,oOo,OOO dCfSS VI Cut-oNcI
wooded land, the United States Off
cially credits Missouri with having
available for improvement, would fur
nuish employment to many thousands
of demobilized soldiers, even if the
lands are not finally turned over to
them on regular small annual INSTALL
ments payments, taken from the pro-
ceeds of the sales Of crops. There is
no doubt but that these 11,399,700
acres of land could be cheaply pur-
chased by the United States Govern
ment from the present owners, and
then would come the second cost, that
of clearing the cut-over land and
draining and ditching the swamp
land, and protecting with levees all
the low area subject to overflow,
which work could easily be paid for,
if not the land itself, from the fund
created through the sale of all re-
claimed land left over after the wants
of demobilized soldiers and other de-
serving war workers now out of work
who choose farming as their future
vocation, have been taken care of.