No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 217 



almost prohibitive, to some actually prohibitive prices of some of 

 the actual necessities of life. Those who live in the country and 

 small country towns and have all these merely for a little time and 

 labor in growing them or at a nominal price if they buy them can 

 little realize the situation prevailing in the city, especially among 

 tbe poorer classes. But little relief from these conditions can be 

 realized unless through improved methods, intensive cultivation, 

 and intelligent utilization the soils of the country are made to res- 

 pond to the demand made upon them with increased and increasing 

 production as the years go on. We cannot hope to improve these 

 conditions unless our people realize them in securing larger yields 

 and at the same time how to husband them for the succeeding years. 

 This demand for the products of the soil has not been fully realized 

 by the farmer and certainly has not been met in the past few years 

 of unprecedented commercial activity. However, I believe that the 

 farmer and the soil are capable of meeting and satisfying the pre- 

 sent and even much greater demands which will be made upon 

 them in the future. 



Of the total area of the country less than one-fourth is actually 

 improved and utilized in growing crops to feed the people. The re- 

 maining half of that portion included in farms is swamps, woodlots, 

 hillside pastures, and land otherwise unimproved. We can expect 

 some help from this class of lands. Drainage of the swamps and 

 the protection of overflow lands will add considerable to the total 

 area. It is estimated that some seventy-five to one hundred million 

 acres can be added to our cultivated area by this means, thus pro- 

 viding for several million more American farm homes. Some of the 

 woodlots will be cleared and brought under cultivation, some of the 

 hillside pastures may be used for producing fruits, and some of the 

 grazing land will likely be subjected to the plow, but no permanent 

 relief can be expected from these extraneous sources. The rea' 

 relief and actual solution of this problem will and must be in the 

 intelligent and rational utilization of the resources of those acres 

 already dominated by man and now used for farm purposes. The 

 question then confronts us, is this possible? We have already heard 

 a great deal about "worn-out soils" and we have heard about 

 "abandoned farms." and from the standpoint of some any great in- 

 crease in production from our present cultivated area cannot be 

 expected. However, we need not be alarmed &i the rantings of 

 these pessimists, for many of their sayings are untrue and experi- 

 ence has proven that the soils are not "worn out," and that even 

 though some farms are abandoned they are still capable of produc- 

 ing remunerative crops if properly managed. In fact our experi- 

 ence tells us that larger yields can be and are secured by more 

 intensive, more scientific, more intelligent systems of farming and 

 soil management. 



The breeding and selection of seed has increased the yields of 

 some of our staple crops by a large percentage. The improvement 

 of strains in our dairy herds has increased our production of milk, 

 butter, and cheese, but in the fact of this the prices of all dairy 

 products has advanced steadily until within the last few months 

 when they have become prohibitive to the poor laboring classes in 

 our cities; the same is true of meats and many of the vegetables, 

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