THE I BRIG ATI OX AGE. 



357 



And for this purpose we propose to call 

 a convention at an early date in San Fran- 

 cisco, the delegates to be selected as rep- 

 resentative men from the cities and towns 

 of the State, and invite you to join offi- 

 cially in the call for such convention. The 

 object of such convention will be to adopt 

 a definite, practical plan by which the 

 State may impound its flood waters and 

 distribute them during the seasons of low 

 water at reasonable rates." 



Xo practical plan has been definitely de- 

 cited upon as to the methods by which 

 this great end may be attained but it will 

 probably be matured soon. This is a 

 worthy and practical movement and one 

 which we hope will succeed. 



SMALL FARMING A REFUGE FROM 

 POVERTY. 



John Habbertin has this to say about 

 small farming as a refuge from poverty: 



While we Americans are valiantly en- 

 deavoring to out trade and out manufac- 

 ture ali the other nations of the earth, 

 there is danger that we are losing profi- 

 ciency in the most important of the arts 

 which is that of extracting subsistence 

 from the soil. We shall never lack farmers 

 who will sow. reap and graze, and thus 

 produce grain and meat for those who can 

 buy. but their methods differ entirely 

 from those of the men who in spare hours 

 get partial or entire livelihood from the 

 bits of ground about their homes. 



In earlier days almost all Americans, 

 the mechanic the shopkeeper and the pro- 

 fessional man alike, regarded the home 

 garden as part of their business capital 

 and as assurance against starvation in 

 times of business depression and enforced 

 idleness. Excuses were sometimes made 

 for the blacksmith who forged a clumsy 

 plowshare or the minister who preached a 

 poor sermon, for not every man can be 

 perfect at his own trade, but every man 

 w;i< expected to know how to dig, plant 

 and cultivate an acre or two of ground, 

 and to 'raise' enough on his place to 

 keep the wolf from the door until times 

 became better. The yield of single acres 

 of hand-tilled ground in the earlier days 

 was often enormous, and was the precursor 

 of the high farming of the modern market- 

 gardener, who often clears as much profit 



from a single acre as the Western farmer 

 gets from forty times as much land. 



The fifteen million Americans who live 

 in cities of more than thirty thousand in- 

 habitants and in houses owned by other 

 men cannot ba expactsd to find tillable 

 land about their homes, but neglect of the 

 soil and its possibilities is noticeable in 

 thousands of villages and manufacturing 

 towns. At any lounging-place may be 

 found idlers who complain that there is no 

 land left for the poor man: meanwhile the 

 ground about the complainers' own homes 

 goes untilled. This is not for lack of sug- 

 gestion, for occasional German, Swede or 

 other immigrant from Europe will be 

 planting for several successive crops near 

 the grumbler, and will have a surplus to 

 sell. 



Not all Americans who are not farmers 

 can expect to live by manufacture and 

 trade, for we are already prepared to make 

 and sell about twice as much as our own 

 people can buy. We shall get our full 

 share of foreign trade, but the purchasing 

 power of the foreigner is not unlimited, 

 and we are not the only people who have 

 designs upon his pocket. Sooner or later 

 many of the half-starved, half-imprisoned 

 people of the large cities will be obliged 

 to go back to to the soil for their living. 

 There will be no lack of soil, for outside 

 the limits of the cities there are only 

 twenty Americans to the square mile of 

 territory, or one to about thirty acres, and 

 although perhaps a quarter of the acres 

 are too bad to till, the remainder could 

 busy ten times as many people as there 

 now are in the United States. In older 

 lands than ours, where men have learned 

 to work the soil for all it is worth, an acre 

 of ground yields support for one person 

 for a year. It does not provide silk 

 dresses, opera boxes and the best cigars, 

 but the same may be said of millions of 

 industrious efforts in the trades and pro- 

 fessions. 



In a land where every one is urged to 



scramble for the top there should be some 

 safe dropping-place for the millions who 

 tumble outward and downward in the 

 struggle. The only possible one. except 

 the poorhouse. is the soil: this, if treated 

 with a fraction of the energy and intelli- 

 gence we Americans dissipate royally on 



