THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



607 



It was alfalfa salad, upon which Nebuchadnezzar fed, 

 its foraging in the fields with the brutes was physical and 

 moral tonic, for the Bible says that after seven years of 

 browsing in the alfalfa pastures, he became a greater king 

 with the glory of his kingdom, his honor and brightness 

 restored. 



The benefits that will come to the American farmer from 

 studies of alfalfa, only are worth more than the cost of 

 all the agricultural colleges in the land. It is a delusion 

 to think that science is not practical, that it will not pay. 

 Those who experiment the most, reap the most dollars. A 

 good agricultural paper pays the largest dividends of any 

 investment a farmer can make. The bulletins issued by the 

 agricultural department at Washington and by the various 

 agricultural colleges of the states, are often veritable pre- 

 scriptions of gold to the farmer, who studies and follows 

 them. Knowledge is power everywhere. 



The farmer who does not take advantage of the investi- 

 gations and experiments of state and nation, is stupid. He 

 is throwing away diamonds and gold; he is not a farmer, 

 he is a fool. It is the Burbanks and not the kings of 

 Wall street who are the benefactors. Those who develop 

 a new or improve an old variety of fruit, food or fodder, 

 are greater than those who rule in, the capitol, or who 

 by manipulation and combination, gather billions of tainted 

 dollars. From the Missouri to the Pacific is the true land 

 of alfalfa. Its promotion is a matter of national concern. 

 It spreads the domain of possible homes. It builds houses 

 of comfort and great barns. It raises the grade of the 

 cow, sheep and the pig. It is the crop that never fails; it 

 never wants for a market. The home stock pens make an 

 ever pressing and profitable demand upon the supply. The 

 farmer that consumes the product of his meadow, has 

 found the sure road to prosperity. Alfalfa lends itself to 

 this home use. It is the "Fortuna's purse" of modern 

 agriculture. It pays debts, lifts mortgages; it sends Sam 

 to college and Mary to the normal school. It helps mother 

 in a hundred ways and puts a flush of independence, if 

 not impudence, in dad's eyes. It relieves the tension of 

 unending toil, improves the place and the stock, adding to 

 the returns from creamery and stock yard, makes the farmer 

 a depositor, and not a debtor at the bank. It buys pianos, 

 carriages and books for the family, it widens their outlook 

 and links the farm with neighbors and the world. What 

 the Bessemer patent was to the iron industry a generation 

 ago, alfalfa promises to be to the western farmer, as an 

 investment it is better and safer than Wall street water 

 or brewery stock. Alfalfa is the best rotation crop; it 

 restores the nitrogen of which grain and beets rob the 

 soil, and make it as rich as before the plow turned the 

 virgin soil. 



The alfalfa field has its asthetic virtues, the emerald 

 green of its fields rests the eye and feeds the nerves as 

 we travel through a thirsty land. It has a charm for man 

 and all living things. In its verdant aisles the dove and 

 the meadow lark build their nests. To the burrowing mole 

 and the field mice and insects of the earth its waving mass 

 is a mighty forest, bees prefer its blossoms to roses, birds 

 sing sweeter as they wing over the fragrant field. An 

 alfalfa fed Colorado lamb brings the highest price and 

 gives the sweetest meat that has touched the palate of 

 man since he ceased to be a vegetarian. Had Moses eaten 

 Colorado alfalfa and pea fed pork, he would, like Lamb's 

 Chinaman, become a convert to roast pig and the Bible 

 would have carried a commendation and not a prohibition 

 of swine. We are with Pinchot when he says. "Save the 

 tree," but we want the settler to have the treeless area; we 

 would have him reforest it with apple trees and conserve 

 the moisture with alfalfa fields and enrich it with hogs, 

 sheep and cattle. Where a home can be planted, a mine 

 opened, or an acre cultivated, the government should make 

 the use easy. The farmer and the miner were the founders 

 of our western states, and their encouragment is the first 

 duty of the republic. The destiny of this country and free 

 government depends upon those who till the soil. Land 

 ownership and the public school are the antidotes for the 

 poison that floods our country through the gates of Castle 

 garden. Every man who owns an acre of alfalfa or sits 

 beneath his own vine and fig tree, is a pillar in the temple 

 of national safety. Their possession can make even the 

 new emigrant a patriot. Congested centers of homeless, 

 propertyless people are the menace. No demagogue, no 



nihilistic propaganda can sweep a community of home 

 owners or soil cultivators from their anchorage of patriot- 

 ism; no political convulsion can shake our institutions or 

 lead astray those who own the land they plow and reap. 

 To discourage large holdings of public domain, to encour- 

 age ownership of 10, 20 or 40-acre farms, is becoming 

 an economic policy of profound wisdom. The nation would 

 be stronger, the average of the people more prosperous if 

 there was no farm over 160 acres in extent. Small farms 

 would mean diversified crops, intense and careful cultiva- 

 tion. It would double the production upon the same num- 

 ber of acres. It would raise the average acreage yield of 

 wheat in the United States from 13 to 30 bushels and other 

 crops in proportion. The rapid absorption of all desirable 

 land, the resistless pressure of an increasing population 

 makes this a problem of immediate moment. 



The present adjustment of production and distribution 

 does not seem to meet the requirements of a free people. 

 Something is wrong, when in a land of plenty and oppor- 

 tunity bread lines form and thousands surge from city to 

 city seeking employment. It is not an ideal condition 

 where honest men seek work in vain; not an ideal state 

 where labor and capital both think it necessary to keep 

 pickets out; not a credit to democracy when in our cities 

 the brewery is the advisor and contributor to both political 

 parties and the saloon a potent factor in politics. 



These with the official grafter and corporation briber 

 are the Hun, the Vandal and the Goth of the republic and 

 civilization. These evils are city bred. They can only 

 flourish where man is homeless and landless. The man 

 who plows a field and -lants a tree can be trusted; he will 

 defend the flag and never polute it. Hay fields and orchards, 

 a pasture and a garden land may not develop million- 

 aires, but they will raise men and diffuse prosperity and in- 

 dependence. The prayer of the patriarch was that he be 

 given neither poverty nor riches. In an irrigated region 

 of small farms, this ideal can be realized. There will be 

 no rich, no poor; all free, equal and independent. The 

 test of civilization is the average welfare of all, not the 

 opulence of a few. England loans $15,000,000,000' to other 

 nations; yet has more paupers than the nations that borrow 

 her gold. Eight thousand people own all her land and a 

 million mendicants walk her streets and highways. Iowa, 

 Dakota, Kansas and other agricultural states loan no 

 money abroad, but they have no paupers, no one hungry, 

 no professional servants in all their millions. Those who 

 raise alfalfa and apples, who own and work their 

 limited acres, will not be. interested in the price 

 of private cars, but they will never know the road that 

 leads to insolvency. The bankrupt court is an unknown 

 continent to them, but their days will be filled with health- 

 ful, useful toil and their, nights with untroubled dreams. 

 The tilling of the soil is the first of professions, the king 

 of trades. There is no danger line 'in land culture, no 

 shipwrecks, no collisions or derailments, no explosions, no 

 risks or hazards to insure against. With industry, common 

 sense and water, the harvests are sure. Now and then a 

 gold brick, a bogus tree man or a bunco machine or book 

 agent extracts tributes, but these are minor annoyances, 

 but mosquitos of life. Altogether it is not only the oldest 

 but the safest business. It is a self-reliant pursuit, a re- 

 spectable vocation. No man ever attained such eminence 

 in our country that he was not proud to claim the farm 

 as his origin. Fourteen of our presidents have been tillers 

 of the soil. More greatness has come from the cradle of 

 the rural cottages than from city palaces. It gives to 

 the diligent and sensible a certain livelihood and inde- 

 pendence and these are of more worth than the glittering 

 promises and phantom gold of speculation. Of course, 

 all conclusions assume good sense and industry. You 

 cannot be a successful farmer and be a loafer any more 

 than you can be a horticulturist and not know the differ- 

 ence between a Ben Davis and a Jonathan apple or be a 

 zoologist and not know the difference between a lizard and 

 a wizard. Knowledge and work are fundamental. Adam 

 and Eve were the first horticulturists, the apple was the 

 first fruit named; it is so fine of look, so rich in fragrance 

 that to test its flavor they risked their fresh and unseared 

 souls. The apple started with man in Eden and it will 

 be with him in Paradise. That fruit was made before meat 

 may have been the Creator's hint that in human 



(Continued on page 612.) 



