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DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



much more important that we retard the flow of that stream than that 

 we try to turn a new stream toward the farms. If the water were leaking 

 out of a reservoir which we wanted to keep full, it would seem wiser to 

 stop the leak than to try to pump more water in, which would only 

 increase the pressure and accelerate the leakage. 



While so many thousands of our farmers are emigrating beyond our 

 boundaries in search of more land, it has been ascertained by Secretary 

 Houston that not more than 40 percent of our tillable land is actually 

 under tillage, and of this, not more than 15 percent is actually yielding 

 satisfactory returns. If the untilled 60 percent were all poor land, while 

 better land could be had for the asking just over the boundary, it would 

 be difficult to convince many of these farmers that they ought to stay 

 at home and cultivate this poor land. But there are reasons for believ- 

 ing that this is not generally the case. The lands which they are seeking 

 abroad have two characteristics which fit them for isolated and individual 

 farming. The soils are new and fertile and therefore require no invest- 

 ment to bring them to a high state of productivity. Again, they are 

 suitable for the growing of a staple crop — wheat — for which there is a 

 ready sale in a highly organized market. Thus the marketing of his 

 product takes care of itself. 



Much of the land still untilled in this country is capable of a high 

 degree of productivity, but will require some investment of capital to 

 bring it to that state. The problem of financing the farmer during this 

 period of waiting must be solved. Again, much of this land is suitable 

 for mixed crops and agricultural specialties rather than for one or two 

 great staple crops. The products of this kind of farming do not market 

 themselves. It requires organized effort on the part of the farmers; 

 therefore, the problem of marketing must be solved before these lands 

 will attract farmers and keep them from going abroad. Here is a new 

 kind of pioneering which challenges the young men and women of our race. 



The challenge is more to the young women than to the young men. 

 They will have the harder half of the burden and they will find less to 

 attract them. Most young men are attracted by an outdoor life, and 

 even physical hardships do not deter them, if there is a chance for real 

 achievement, together with genuine comradeship. That is what a soldier's 

 life involves. But no one would want to be a soldier if he were deprived 

 of comradeship and if there was no chance of achievement. Young women 

 are not so stronly attracted to this kind . of life. Nothing but religion 

 will sustain them in it, and unfortunately women are, contrary to com- 

 mon belief, far less religious than men. The reason for this common 

 error is that what we commonly call religion is of a namby-pamby sort. 

 There is little in it to sustain the spirit of a crusader, which is charac- 

 teristic of any genuine religion — the only kind which appeals to men. 



To conquer our untilled lands, to subjugate them and force them to 

 yield food for the feeding of a great people, to build great families with 

 high ideals in order that we may become a great people worthy of being 

 fed, is a task which ought to fire the ardor of our young American cru- 



