VOL. LXIV
INDIANAPOLIS, AUGUST 21, 1909.
NO. 33
Not Soou But Now.
By D.  I.  Duncan.
During a recent visit to my old home
in Delaware county, Indiana, my attention was called to an article that appeared in the Indiana Farmer under
date of May 29th from the pen of Mr.
J. H. Haynes. I do not believe in
newspaper controversies but I wish to
defend myself, since Mr. Haynes evidently misread my article. I didn't
say anything about the baby of fifty
years hence but right in the beginning
I spoke of the son born day before yesterday. I started with the infant of
today and went with him thru life
commenting on how he would exist at
the end of fifty years if the general
wastefulness of today In the line of
preventable fires, soil erosion, loss of
fertility, destruction of the forests,
ravages of the fisheries, etc., continue.
Mr. Haynes leaves the subject under
aliscussion and rambles on about trusts,
weakness of Congress, etc., all of which
is poor argument    since    we     farmers
have no one to blame but ourselves.    I
i am not going to start any socialistic or
^political   discussion,   for   the   pages   of
fhe Farmer are too valuable to be    so
wasted.       However,' you   can  bet  your
llast penny that    whether    Republican,
(Democrat or what not, 75 per cent of
the   farmers   (as   well   as   the   men   in
most  other   walks  of  life)   will  at  the
next  election  support  the  men  put  up
by their party,  regardless  of their  fitness. That   is   not   an   exaggeration
but history which repeats itself.
The writer once heard the late Presi-
slent McKinley say: "I have been made
to feel sad at the
Helpless Condition of Agriculture.
I.et a bill be introduced into Congress
effecting the railroad or banking inter-
1 sts and in 24 house there will be a
strong lobby in Washington working
for that bill if favorable to them or
striving for its defeat if against them.
But let a bill be introduced affecting
agriculture and scarcely a voice is lift-
•il for or against it."
I quite agree with Mr. Haynes that
't is tiftie for the farmers to write a
ntJw declaration of independence of
their own, and get closer together on
the subjects relating to their interests,
but I am afraid it will be in the language of the old song "Oh Lord, how
long."
In the meantime let us stick to the
tf,xt, which is the conservation of our
natural resources. It has been my
Privilege during the past ten years to
visit almost every state in the Union,
'"gaged in the work that brought me
"i direct contact with the farmers, and
1 quite agree "with President Van Hise
u£ the University of Wisconsin when
he said "Only by the conservation of
(,ur soil, undiminished in its fertility,
'•in we hope to be able to provide for
•he hundreds of millions of people who,
"> the near future in the United States,
*>>• be demanding food and clothes."
1,r- Hopkins of the University of 1111-
"ois has repeatedly stated that "if pres-
"nt methods are allowed to continue, it
'a certain that in the not distant future
n's country will be able to support on-
y a relatively sparse population." All
"nking    men have    agreed that    tho
great problem  of  today  is the  maintenance of
The Inherent Fertility of the Soil.
Today  (August    9th)     parts of three
Indian   reservations   in   the   Northwest
July   31st. Two   trains   loaded   with
land-seekers hurrying to the registration places collided, and 16 were killed
and more than 80 injured.) It is true
that some people were attracted by the
prospect    of    getting      something    for
WHERE EARLY INDIANA  HISTORY WAS MADE.
The    "Constitutional  Elm,"  at  Corydon,   Indiana.       From a recent Photograph.
The Old State House at Corydon, as it Now Appears.
are being opened, and almost 300,000
people have registered for lands, altho
less than 5,000 claims will be allotted.
It is estimated that 100,000 of these
came       from the       middle west
and eastern states and spending
at the very conservative
estimate of $90 each for railroad fare,
hotel bill, notary fees, etc., the enormous sum of $9,000,000 has been spent
by people willing to take a chance of
one in five hundred of drawing a frontier farm. Today I personally mingled
with the crowd that Jammed the space
surrounding the drawing booth and
met many eastern people. (Indiana
was not unrepresented, since a well
known man from Logansport was bad- I
ly injured in the horrible wreck which
occurred near Coeur d'Alene, Idaho on
nothing, but many said they were
seeking new quarters because the farms
in the east were worn out. While that
is true in many instances, it is equally
true that most of the so-called depleted
Lands in the Kast Can be Reclaimed
by  the  right  sort  of  cultivation     and
fertilization.
Four weeks ago I gave a lecture before an apple growers' association in
the famous Hood River Valley of
Oregon on the "Maintenance ot Soil
Fertility," and there wasn't a man In
the audience who didn't own orchard
land but what would sell from $800 to
$1,600 per acre yet they were interested
in the subject of better care of the soil,
the right kind of fertilizers to use, etc.,
because   they   desired   to   maintain   the
high producing capacity of their orchards rather than to "lock the stable
after the horse was stolen."
In the citrus fruit belt of Southern
California I found men who own
orange and lemon groves that net them
$500, and upwards per acre, who ' are
organizing clubs and employing experts
so that they can better understand the
question of cultivation, irrigation, the
best cover crops to grow, the right
time to apply barnyard manures,
and the right time and right amount of
.ommercial fertilizers to use. And I
•night mention in passing, to show the
benefit to be derived from close organization, that it was largely thru the efforts of the Citrus Growers' Exchange
that the reduction of tariff on foreign
lemons was not only prevented but was
increased  one-fourth cent per  pound.
Saturday I made the trip in here
(Spokane, Wash.,) from Moscow,
Idaho, passing thru the extensive grain
fields of Idaho and Western Washington. In some fields great combine harvesters were cutting, threshing and
bagging from 25 to 30 acres of grain
per day. In other fields a half dozen
binders were  at work. I   noticed  in
some places the grain was straw fallen
and I asked the ranchman who got on
at one of the stations if that was because the grain was so heavy or because of recent rains, and he said
"some of these fields have been sown
to grain for 20 years, and there are
places where, while the heads are not
unusually heavy, the straw is weak. I
guess the heavy crops of the past have
taken some of the necessary elements
in the soil." I asked him if they ever
used phosphoric acid and potash to Increase the plumpness of the grain and
the stiffness of the straw, and he replied "the fruit growers and truckers
are Inquiring about fertilizers but we
grain growers haven't done anything in
that  line  as  yet. However,   we   will
have to
Adopt Different Methods
if we expect to secure the profitable
wheat crop as in the past." And that
in Idaho!
There is in session here in Spokane
this week the National Irrigation Congress with delegates from many parts
of the United States and half a dozen
foreign    countries. Their    program
shows they are not only discussing the
water supply but many other subjects
relating to the betterment of farm conditions.
I have mentioned the foregoing to
show that the apicultural and horticultural people in parts of the United
States are being aroused to their condition. They have quit saying "not
yet but soon," and believe that now is
the accepted time. It is true that
it is quite high time that the country
be aroused and a check be put on the
wastefulness of our farm and forest
lands. It is up to the farmer in the
East and West, North and South, to
study well the conditions under which
he is laboring, to practice more improved methods of cultivation, to use
better seeds, to care for the barnyard
manures and to study the subject of
commercial plant foods, and buy and
use them more intelligently. No truer
words were ever said than those uttered by Dr. Hopkins before the Illinois
State Farmers' Institute a few years
ago,—and words that should be print-
Continued  on  page  5.