The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1922-05-04

ly W JUN III DullullS OtueT StCtlOIlSs
1t greases the wheels of commerce., it
increases per capita wealth, it encour.
ages opportunity.
AS these lands are developed they
will furnish thousands of homes to en-
terprising citizens who have not be-
fore had an opportunity to become pro,
ducers of wealth except in a nominal
way. Towns will grow, railroads be
built, enterprises flourish, mines be
opened, countless markets come.
The selfish argument is made some
times that the development OF til csc
new lands will reduce the value Of
land in the humid districts; that the
production from the soil thus re-
claimed would reduce the price Of the
products. Nothing could be farther
from the truth. Over production is
not a possibility. No less an authority
than DR.. Ball said, before the Agricul-
tural conference:
The peak of agricultural produc-
ton per capita was passed in 1898,
nearly a quarter of a century ago.
agricultural production always kept
pace with population for some little
time after that date, but in the last
decade it has been steadily and ever
more rapidly falling. y No wonder
that when the secretary of Agricul-
ture stated that the United States pro-
duced 25 per CEN of the wheat, 60 per
cent of the cotton and Is per cent Of
the corn of the world, with only one
sixth Of its population, the nation
should feel it was on a firm founda-
ton and its future prosperity as
sured."
In the meantime, standing still as
an agricultural producing nation for
a decade, u population has increased
fourteen millions. DR.. Ball further
says:
What does this mean to the ma
ton? 1t means a reorganization OF
our entire national life. 1t means
that the farmers interest in foreign
markets will have disappeared. 1t
means that the price of wheat in Chi
cago will be the price of wheat in
Liverpool, plus the cost of moving it
from Liverpool to Chicago, where now
the price in Chicago is the price in
Liverpool less the cost of moving It
there"
What little opposition one hears
seems to be centralized in what is
known as the corr belt. This corn
belt section is standing in it's own
light. Much of the cOuntry's stock
is finished with orr. If the west did
not produce feedar st""i-' i"""' LII
nois, Missouri and the other corn belt
states would find a greatly reduced
market for this crop. The crop in
the irrigated section most respon-
sible for the development of live
stock and the production of a Finished
market in the central states in alfalfa.
We feed, but do not ship, alfalfa in
quantities. The United States is a
big importer of wool. Alfalfa is
raised in irrigated sections to feed the
sheep in winter. In summer they are
fed on the forest reserves. Millions
of acres of forest reserve would be
useless as a wealth producer if we
did not have alfalfa to feed in win
ter. We raise sugar The country
is a big sugar importer. There is
not a single crop but wheat which
could even remotely be considered
competition. Let the statistician in
form you that the production is so in
finitesimal in the worlds supply as
to make no impression. We are fast,
indeed, coming to special crops, be-
cause our remoteness from market
eats up the profits in staples and will
one irrigated section of the west,
they are raising long staple cotton,
produced no where else in the United
States. The fruits raised in the west
are bringing comfort and pleasure to
the less fortunate sections OF the
country.
Today we have but ten per cent of
the possible territory irrigable by
the government in cultivation. Yet if
we had all Of it we would not add as
much as the farm area of the state
of Indiana to the total agricultural
area Of the United States. At the
same time, practically every dollar of
production in this highly productive
country would go back to the east for
cash purchases, making one Of the
most stable markets in the world.
While we would add 10 more than the
agricultural area of Indiana to the
farm stretches of the Union, yet there
would three times as great a pop
ulation supported as within the state
of Indiana.
We claim this development will
ring the cash register Of the east.
Better say we know it. Fifteen
years ago where Twin Falls, Idaho,
is was a barren sage brush desert.
The site of the town was sixty-four
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