Evening star., 1925-07-30
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
-
BYsPAUL Y. COLLINS.

25 bushels. Rye in 1866 averaged 13
bushels: today. Is bushels. Buck
wheat in 1870 averaged 1S bushels;
now IT is 19. Corn in 1866 averaged
26 bushels; now 1t has climbed to 81
bushels. upon the basis of a nine-year
average. Yet progressive farmers
frequently produce in excess of 100
bushels per acre. Wheat has come up
from IL bushels to Is bushels.
What Is more significant. is that. ac.
cording to the Department of Agri-
culture. some of the wheat raisers
produced the grain at a cost Of loo
a bushel, while others expended $500
to raise each bushel of wheat of the
same grade Similar variation OF
| cost OF production might be cited in
all other lines of farming. That diff
ference appears to measure the gan
between intelligent agriculture and
Just farming" after some 80 years
OF scientific agriculture.
1t is pointed out by a scientist of the
Department of Agriculture that the
result of scientific exploration and the
effort to enlighten the present genera
| ton of farmers Is not so discouragine
as 1t may seem superficially. The farm
ers who were mature and expert
enced when farm schools were es
| tablished could not be impressed with
| the Importance of improved methods
The. new knowledge, even when
demonstrated by specialists, could
reach only the oncoming generation
While thousands of new farmers are
| coming into action yearly. 1t must no,
| be overlooked that practically all OF
| agricultural instruction through
schools dates back only to about
| 1888, and spans only one generation
frn ioc -
tapping generation which received its
| methods and knowledge from sources
unaffected by farm science.
|
Farm economists of the Department,
| of Agriculture declare that the worsj
| calamity that could befall agriculture
would be sudden acceptance of idea
methods by a great number of farm
ers. thereby bringing production ur
| to the maximum of science
! The vital problem of farming is not
production but distribution It is
ideal, but entirely impracticable foi
| farmers to so thoroughly cooperate az
| to limit their product. to the market
| demand, and to so, regulate distribu
1 ton as to control Supply and de
| mand." The British rubber producers
| are demonstrating today what sucl
control of production and distribution
can accomplish in prosperity. Bu
farmers are too numerous and too
i'unorganized to hope for such disci
| pline, yet it is the hope of their lead
-ers, and of broad statesmen, that CO
operation may be SO developed, partl,
! through legislation, that most OF tn,
| extravagances and blunders' Of pres
ent methods of marketing may b,
| modified.
| What is the future of the worlt
| problem of feeding the ever-increasins
population? China feeds five times
the population of the United States
! upon an area two.thirds as great. TIL,
land area of the United States is l 80;
million acres, OF which only 365 mil
lion are producing crops and 5S7 mil
lion are semi-arid or good only fol
pasture. The rest Is forest or cut
over land, or humid grass land OF
desert.
/ When we have a population so srea
that the land, with intensive cultiva
ton, cannot produce sufficient food
the people will not starve. In scienc,
will be developed methods by which
the gasses can be treated with ultra
violet rays in great factories. B,
proper mixing, all the elements O
food, which Nature now mixes in tn,
laboratory of the field, with rain an
| sunshine, Will De produced IN TIT
chemists laboratory-factory.
Chimerical? No: 1t is being done to
day by the most eminent scientist o
France, Daniel Berthelot. president o
the French Society of Electrical Engi
neers, member of the Institute d.
France and professor Of the Sorbonne
the highest seat of learning in France
Synthesis will take the place of agri
culture-in the millennium of science
In the meanwhile science instruct
y proSressfvk farmers of today
Copyright, 1925. by Paul v. Collins.)