80 



THE IRRIGATION AOE. 



planted, three pecks would uniformly bring a larger 

 harvest than double the quantity sown. He also 

 believed that if the grains were planted at regular 

 intervals like corn hills, the yield would be very 

 much greater still. In fact, experiment with small 

 plats has shown this position to have been well 

 taken. 



While it is certainly not desirable that American 

 farmers, under present conditions, should increase the 

 aggregate yield of wheat, it is desirable and should 

 be in every way advantageous, that the out-turn per 

 acre be very greatly increased. Better let one-half 

 the land lie fallow than to send away across the sea 

 as now, its vital elements in an unprofitable crop. 

 Ship loads of potash, nitrogen, lime and other valu- 

 able ingredients each year leave American soil to find 

 their way to the sewers of London, which should re- 

 main at home as an insurance policy for the future 

 welfare of our own people. 



Were American farms managed with the same 

 business sagacity which characterizes American 

 factories, overproduction of a given article would 

 immediately result in a curtailment proportioned to 

 the legitimate demand. But it has been a tradition 

 of the farmer in the United States that he should lead 

 an independent life, and that all cooperation or com- 

 bination cometh of evil. Happily, however, progress 

 is making along this line, and the grange, the alli- 

 ance and the farmers' club are having an educational 

 effect already felt in nearly all parts of the country. 

 In the irrigable sections, where small farms may be 

 and are profitably tilled, more compact communi- 

 ties are possible, and most of the benefits to be at- 

 tained by closer association are easily secured. 



It can scarcely be believed that American farmers 

 will continue much longer to go blindly along as did 

 their ancestors, producing crops whose only justifica- 

 tion is time-honored usage, and paying little heed to 

 the world's demands. 



To say nothing of any attempts by the American 

 farmer to seek his own welfare through the channels 

 of legislation, he has it within his power to adjust his 

 staple productions to the conditions which a careful 

 study of crop statistics and methods in other countries 

 show must be accepted or met in the American and 

 foreign markets. A hopeful sign of the new agricul- 

 ture which must soon be learned by the western 

 farmers especially, is the organization of clubs having 

 for their object the gaining of correct information of 

 the world's wheat crops each year, and from the data 

 thus obtained endeavor to influence the growing of 

 crops to correspond with probable demands. Let 

 such associations become common among farmers in 

 all parts of the country, let the necessary steps be 

 taken to learn fully each year the statistics of the 

 world's production and consumption of the various 



food crops, and the soil tiller may then adjust his 

 acreages of the different crops in some measure to 

 the needs and conditions of those who consume them. 



One of the functions of THE IRRIGATION AGE will be 

 to point out from time to time to American farmers 

 that neither their own nor their country's welfare is 

 greatly subserved by producing enormous crops of 

 wheat to sell in the markets of Liverpool, London and 

 Glasgow. It sounds well to say that we export a 

 hundred million bushels of wheat, but what do we 

 make by it? We sell our wheat in Liverpool in com- 

 petition with Oriental ryots and fellateenand the grain 

 that represents the lowest possible cost of production 

 and transportation fixes the price of all, and we are 

 absolutely helpless against this competition. 



The Harvard graduate who raises wheat in Minne- 

 sota, Kansas or California must scramble with Ori- 

 ental barbarians in the wheat marts of Great Britain ; 

 and the barbarian always has this advantage in the 

 conflict he can produce his goods at a much less 

 cost than the American, and can therefore undersell 

 him. 



Were it possible for THE AGE to reach the ear of 

 every American farmer, whether in the irrigable re- 

 gions or not, it would appeal to him to study the crop 

 reports as he would his Bible; to study, and figure 

 and reflect. It would appeal to every wheat grower 

 to cut down his acreage at least one-half, and to be- 

 stow a corresponding increase of labor and attention 

 upon the remainder. It would urge him to besiege 

 the Department of Agriculture for its monthly crop 

 reports and to utilize that agency to the utmost limit 

 for the acquisition of such information as it may and 

 does offer to every farmer without money and with- 

 out cost. 



ADVISORY FUNCTIONS OF THE DEPARTMENT. 



It would appear, too, that the Department might 

 very properly undertake advisory functions to a cer- 

 tain degree at least; and when conditions showed an 

 overproduction in a certain line, suggest a scaling 

 down of subsequent plantings in such manner as to 

 restore the equilibrium between production and liv- 

 ing prices. The farmer should remember that the 

 conditions of production, transportation and market- 

 ing have undergone radical changes within the past 

 few years, and these changes require a readjustment of 

 means to ends by the agriculturists themselves. No 

 branch of agriculture, however, is more in need of 

 reformation than that which results each year in an 

 enormous overproduction of wheat to be hawked in 

 the markets of the world at any price which the for- 

 eign speculator may be good enough to offer. 



Our statistics of production for the past fifteen years 

 show that the potato crop has been more than three 

 times as remunerative per acre, gross, as the wheat 

 crop, and yet for the past two years thousands of farm- 



