Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1921-04-15

vancement more comfortable living
conditions, and better social, educa-
tional, and religious privileges. 1t
is the inevitable result of economic
conditions and no amount of talk ex-
tolling the beauty of farm life can
stop it. Nor has this relative de-
cline in the producing population
been a very serious matter up to the
present time. Certainly it has not
been serious from the farmers view
point. We have made great adj
vances in methods of production
The development of labor-saving ma
chinery has enabled us to increase
our production per man. Notwith-
standing our increase in total popu-
lation and the decrease in farm popu-
lation, we have, until very recently,
steadily increased food production
per thousand of total population.
This increase has come both from
the use of labor-saving machinery
and from bringing into cultivation
new areas of fertile land. We can
not keep up this gait in the future.
Consumption has almost oyertaken
production under normal world con-
ditions.
Most of our fertile land which can
be farmed profitably without eXpen-
sive reclamation has been taken up.
We still have large areas of swamp
land and dry land and cut-over land,
but these lands can not be profitably
reclaimed and farmed unless we can
depend upon higher relative prices
for farm products than prevailed be
fore the war, So, also, we can great
ly increase the productive power of
a large area of the land in surplus
producing states, provided we can
depend upon prices which will cover
the increased expense. Under our
system of farming we have produced
far more per man than almost any
other nation, but we have not pro-
duced nearly as much per acre as in
the nations of western Europe, for
example. Our greatest increase Of
food production in the future must
come from increasing our acre yields,
but this, in turn, depends upon prices
which will justify the increased cost.
The farmer is the one man en-
gagged in a big business who has had
no voice in fixing the price of the
things he produces He has been
compelled to take whatever price he
could get. His cost of production has
not at any time been considered in
determining this price. In times of
small crops prices have sometimes
been high. In times of large crops
prices frequently have been ruinous-
. ly low. Very large crops, as a rule,
give the farmer fewer dollars than
small crops. Farming seems to be
one business in which large produc-
ton is always penalized.
No doubt, when we get through
this period of world readjustment
and get squared away on an orderly
basis there will be a gradual in
crease in the value of farm land, pro-
vided our national policy is fair to
agriculture, but this increase will be
much slower than in times past. The
speculative value has been taken out
/ of the land. The farmer can no
| longer depend upon the increase in
the value of his farm to make good
/ losses suffered through his farming
operations year by year Farmers
crops must sell higher relatively in
the future than in the past.
We seem to have been going on
the theory that the fertility of our
soil, especially in the great corn and
tame grass country, is inexhaustible.
To the nation this is most danger
Gus theory. We must set about in
earnest the development of an agri
cultural policy which will enable us
to feed our people at fair prices and,
at the same time, retain the fertility
of our soil, our greatest national
asset.
TIE increase in tenancy has
aroused great concern. Many peo-
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