Farmers^ Week in Agricultural College. 69 



combined with a decrease in the factors of production. In the past it 

 has been possible for us to move forward and occupy new land of vir- 

 gin fertility. We can occupy no more new land. If all the land it is 

 possible to irrigate could be irrigated inside of five years, it w^ould 

 have very little effect upon the total food supply of this country. James 

 J. Hill, whose words of wisdom are heeded in the United States, is 

 quoted as much or more than any other man in regard to the great 

 problems of agricultural production. Mr. Hill has recently, in many 

 public addresses and in the public press, given expression to a number 

 of opinions to which I wish to call your attention as possible solutions 

 of this problem. It has been suggested, among other things, that what 

 we need is more people in the country; that in order to reduce the 

 cost of production of the staple products of food we should import 

 from the city the unemployed and the agriculturally untrained. Yon 

 will agree with me, I am sure, that this is not a high compliment to the 

 intelligent men of large experience who find it rather difficult to make 

 a good living on the modern farm with all their intelligence and ex- 

 perience. This is a very poor solution of the problem. It is impracti- 

 cal : and while there are a number of people in the city who might be 

 better off in the country, it wall not to any appreciable extent, solve the 

 problem. 



Now, you and I, with many others, have been guilty of urging 

 everybody to stay on the fann. I have for a number of years had the 

 pleasure and opportunity of teaching students in agriculture, and I 

 think they will all tell you that I have constantly urged them to go 

 back on the farm instead of follownng any kind of professional work 

 in agriculture or any other kind of work. But the same people who 

 are urging boys to stay on the farm, are also suggesting certain plans 

 and methods of farm management which are not altogether consistent, 

 and in this connection I have here a quotation from Mr. Hill which 

 I wish to read to you : ' ' There can be no greater aid towards the main- 

 tenance of a prosperous, free and enlightened nation than to keep the 

 children on the farm." In another connection, Mr. Hill has also made 

 this statement : ' ' Such close and careful cultivation as will yield the 

 highest profit per acre can best be given to land when it is cultivated 

 in comparatively small farms. The greater the number of prosperous 

 farmers the greater will be the prosperity of every business man." 



Evidently, in the mind of Mr. Hill, the solution of the problem of 

 the high cost of living is the small farm. All that the successful farmers 

 who are here today need to do in order to be more successful, is to dis- 

 pose of half of their lands and devote all of the labor heretofore ap- 

 plied to the larger area to half of the present area. That is the logical 



