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acres of land awaiting agricultural development in Southern 

 New Jersey, and those of you who have thought of the future 

 of this State, particularly of the future of Southern New Jersey, 

 must have been impressed with the vast possibilities. As a soil 

 specialist, I realize that possibly in my day South Jersey will 

 become one of the prominent sections of the seaboard insofar as 

 agricultural activity is concerned. It is to some extent so to-day, 

 but there is going to be a great deal more of agricultural de- 

 velopment in Southern New Jersey in the next twenty-five years. 



I happen to have two letters which came to me this morning, 

 one from a man in Massachusetts, who is considering buying a 

 tract of land of fourteen thousand acres located between Whit- 

 ings and New Egypt, the other from a man representing a large 

 group of farmers in Iowa. This group of farmers is consider- 

 ing the purchase of land in New Jersey and of locating in New 

 Jersey. But if the truth be told, ladies and gentlemen, New 

 Jersey as an agricultural territory has not been discovered. 

 There was a time when current moved to the West. The tide is 

 now setting in toward the East. Since agricultural opportuni- 

 ties for the landowner are in the East more than in the middle 

 West or farther West. If we were minded to do a fraction of 

 the "boosting" that our friends in the far West are doing, we 

 could attract annually a thousand or two thousand or even three 

 thousand farmers into the State of New Jersey. I believe that 

 we could give them a great deal more for their money than they 

 obtain when they purchase land on the Pacific coast, a great deal 

 more. 



In traveling through Southern California last summer I saw 

 much that made a deep impression on me. I saw land that has 

 no water rights selling for a hundred and a hundred and fiifty 

 dollars an acre, land under irrigation with water rights selling 

 for five, six and seven hundred dollars an acre. I remember 

 one tract of land that was sold for seven hundred dollars an 

 acre, and it was, indeed, good alfalfa land. It produced possi- 

 bly four or five tons of alfalfa hay per acre, and alfalfa sells 

 there at eight or ten dollars a ton. In exceptional seasons it 

 may bring twelve dollars a ton. Now, the interest on seven 



