4 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



sources of that State were so vast as to feed 

 its people "for ages to come." 



These recorded facts relate, we might al- 

 most say, to contemporary history, the his- 

 tory of to-day. In 1909 there were still 395 

 widows of the War of 1812 on the pension 

 roll of the government, and 2,459 soldiers of 

 the war with Mexico still survived. It was 

 only yesterday that our grandfathers went 

 "west" with their yokes of oxen and iron ket- 

 tles, considering themselves very well outfitted 

 indeed; and selected fertile river bottoms 

 where the most desultory cultivation removed 

 them from want. 



Following the Civil War came the Home- 

 stead Act, and out across the prairies swept 

 the disbanded armies checking off the sections 

 square by square ; moving like a cloud of wild 

 pigeons, platoons from the rear-guard con- 

 stantly detaching themselves and taking their 

 place at the head of the ever-advancing 

 column. 



Land, land, the illimitable land, the magic 

 carpet with a rainbow at one end! 



Then came the period of the late 'eighties, 

 the period of over-colonization, overproduc- 

 tion too much land, too much food, an 



