State farm

“ We remember only too well when our fertile fields yielded thirty-five to forty bushels of wheat to the acre, and that the same fields produced only about twelve bushels five years ago. In nearly every community there is found that pathetic omen of decay, the deserted farm—even in this young State.
The economic importance of soil conservation is so great that it can scarcely be estimated. ”

“ Out of the twenty-two millions of acres of farm lands in the state but fifteen millions are actually under cultivation, leaving, therefore, from six to eight millions of acres within the farms of the state but lying idle. ”

“ The 73 largest taxpayers give in their farm holdings at values ranging from $6 to $20 an acre. Thus the burden of state and county support falls three or four times as heavily on one acre of farm land as on another—on farms lying side by side. ”

“ Again, a great amount of "locomotion" is spared by thorough cultivation. Take fifty bushes of wheat, ready for the harvest, standing upon a single acre, and it can be harvested in any of the known ways, with less than half the labor which would be required if it were spread over five acres. This would be true, if cut by the old hand sickle; true, to a greater extent if by the scythe and cradle; and to a still greater extend, if by the machines now in use. These machines are chiefly valuable, as a means of substituting animal power for the power of men in this branch of farm work. ”

“ But the truth is, the planting of apple and pear trees in fields is no extravagance, rather an economy, the fruit they produce exceeding in value the corn they damage, whilst the puzzling line of poplars growing beside canals and rivers is the work of the Government, every spare bit of ground belonging to the State being planted with them for the sake of the timber. The crops are splendid partly owing to the soil, and partly to the advanced system of agriculture. ”

“ The profit in farming lies first of all in securing large crop yields. It costs forty bushels of corn per acre in Illinois to raise the crop and pay the rent for the land or interest and taxes on the investment. With land worth $150 an acre, it will require $8 to pay the interest and taxes. Another $8 will be required to raise the crop and harvest and market it, even with very inadequate provision made for maintaining the productive power of the soil, such as a catch crop of clover, or a very light dressing of farm fertilizer. ”

“ In 1880 there were 174,184 farms in the State, with an aggregate of 12,650,314 acres of improved land. The farms are usually of large size, and garden, orchard, and dairy products are entirely secondary to plantation crops. The southern part of the coast plain and the rest of the State west of the black prairie region are peculiarly adapted to pastoral pursuits, which are entirely separated from agricultural, the cattle and sheep being allowed to roam at large, or enclosed in enormous pastures, where they subsist without other food or shelter than nature affonls. ”

“ America's agricultural industry plays an important role in our Nation's economy. It provides us with an ample supply of high-quality food and fiber and a rewarding form of employment for millions of Americans. However, farming and ranching remain among our Nation's most dangerous occupations, demanding an understanding of complex agricultural equipment, strict attention to detail, and careful performance of farm and ranch work. ”

“ Our arid lands will be made fertile by irrigation, but they will add only a small percentage to the amount already in quasi-cultivation. Our future food supplies must be drawn largely from the six million farms now under fences. These farms must be made to yield fourfold their present product, or they will fall short, not only of the demands made upon them, but also of their possibilities. That is why I preach the gospel of intensive farming, for grain, hay, market, and factory farm alike. ”

“ On these farms every advantage of machinery, and every discovery in agricultural science, should be utilised [140] to the utmost. The crops should be carefully chosen with reference to soil and aspect—cereals, fruit, vegetables—and the culture adapted to the crop, the one aim being to obtain the largest amount of produce with the least expenditure of human labor. Whether land is most profitably cultivated in large or small parcels depends on the crop; and in the great area of the County Farm, la grande et la petite culture might each have its place. ”

“ But the land soon proved too valuable for cattle raising, and farming encroached upon and finally broke up the enclosed ranges. Large areas still remain, however, which, with their native grasses, are better suited for cattle raising than for agriculture; but it is in the national forests that cattlemen now find the best grazing lands in the State. These forests are under control of the United States Forest Service, and uniform charges are made for grazing privileges. Wheat was grown early in the rich Palouse country, in the southeastern corner of the State, where the rainfall is moderate. ”

“ As to our soil, as has been remarked, there is no inherent incapacity for the production of any of the common crops. We can raise wheat in Massachusetts. The average crop in England is twenty-six bushels to the acre. From my own farm, where the soil is comparatively thin and poor, I have obtained this summer seventy-six bushels of wheat upon three acres of land. It is not, therefore, any want of capability in the soil; but the improvement and success of our husbandry must depend upon a succession of crops adapted to the circumstances of our soil, climate, and peculiar condition. ”

“ The ordinary high-priced, manufactured, acidulated, so-called "complete" commercial fertilizers, in the small amounts that farmers can afford to use, and do use quite generally in the older states, serve in part as soil-stimulants and commonly leave the land poorer year by year; and if the farmers of the great Corn and Wheat Belts are ever to adopt systems of permanent agriculture, it must be done in the near future, or they too will awake to find their lands impoverished beyond self-redemption. ”

“ The saving feature of the situation is the interest already awakened in agricultural improvements; an interest which it should be the first object of this Congress to deepen and preserve. Much has been done, but it is only a beginning. The experiment station; the demonstration farm; agricultural instruction in public schools; emphasis upon right cultivation, seed selection, and fertilization through the keeping of live stock, all these are slowly increasing the agricultural product and raising the index of soil values. ”

“ In the end, Fairfax County farmers generally effected a compromise: while focusing on one aspect of farming, they retained many of the advantages of the general farmer. Vegetable gardens, poultry houses, orchards, and sometimes sheep all kept their place on the family farm. ”

“ The old free range gave place to the ranch, the ranch to the homestead and now in places in the arid lands the homestead is replaced by the ten or twenty acre irrigated fruit farm. The age of cheap land, cheap corn and wheat, and cheap cattle has gone forever. The federal government has undertaken vast paternal enterprises of reclamation of the desert.
In the Rocky Mountains where at the time of Civil War, the first important rushes to gold and silver mines carried the frontier backward on a march toward the East, the most amazing transformations have occurred. ”

“ Some of this is already under cultivation but there is not yet an output more than sufficient to supply the home markets. The farming area, according to the surveys which have been made, is as large as the combined area of the States of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, and in the opinion of the Department of Agriculture this area ought to be capable of supporting a population nearly equal to that supported by the farm products of these states. ”

“ Logged- off lands, cleared of stumps by a laborious and expensive process of blasting, pulling, and burning, now produce excellent crops of vegetables, berries, fruits, daffodils, and tulips in commercial quantities. Years of intensive cultivation are required to make farming such land profitable. The climate and soil of this part of the State are well suited to the growing of sugar beets, most of the beets coming from five- to ten-acre tracts or from diversified farms. The large fields, comparatively few in number, are planted, cultivated, and harvested by machinery. ”

“ I like to keep in mind the requirements of large crops, such as it is possible to raise under our climatic conditions if we will provide the stuff the crops are made of, so far as we need to, and do the farm work as it should be done. I never try to remember how much plant food is required for twenty-two bushels of corn per acre, which is the average yield of Virginia for the last ten years, while an authentic record reports a yield of 239 bushels from an acre of land in South Carolina. ”

“ Almost half of the land in the United States is used for agricultural production, and our Nation depends on our hard-working farm and ranch families for food, fiber, and the good stewardship of our environment. ”

“ If every hundred-acre farm were to receive fifty trees, all the nurseries would be swept bare in a single year. The States east of, and contiguous to, the Mississippi river, would require ten thousand acres of land for three hundred years, to plant ten acres of fruit-trees on every hundred-acre farm in this portion of the Union: and this estimate is based on the supposition that all the trees planted do well, and flourish. If only a fifth of them perish, then two thousand years would be required, at the present rate of supply, to furnish the above-named quantity of orchard for every farm. ”

“ There are about 40,000 acres in this valley capable of irrigation; 3,000 acres are now irrigated and under cultivation. The southern portion of the county is rolling, and comprises some of the finest agricultural land in the state. Large areas of this section are utilized for wheat-raising, while here are grown the finest sugar beets in the world.
Lumbering is a considerable industry, while stock-raising and dairying are also extensively engaged in. Over 1,000,000 bushels of wheat are grown annually. The flour mills of the county have a combined capacity of 3,600 barrels daily. ”

“ The forage crop on the National Forests is for the use of the sheep and cattle of the western stockmen and it is procured by means of grazing permits which are issued and charged for upon a per capita basis. The primary objects of the administration of government grazing lands are: the protection and conservative use of all National Forest land adapted to grazing; the permanent good of the live stock industry through the proper care and use of grazing lands; and the protection of the settler and home builder against unfair competition in the use of the range. ”

“ Some such legislation as that proposed is essential in order to preserve the great stretches of public grazing land which are unfit for cultivation under present methods and are valuable only for the forage which they supply. These stretches amount in all to some 300,000,000 acres, and are open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, horses and goats, without restriction. Such a system, or lack of system, means that the range is not so much used as wasted by abuse. As the West settles the range becomes more and more over-grazed. ”

“ I visited several experimental farms under the management of the Department of Agriculture and was informed by the superintendent of the farm that the Government had a small farm of six hundred and forty acres in every district in which was situated the District High School where boys and girls were taught how to farm and to raise stock and poultry to the best advantage, and also large farms at every military reservation where persons convicted of crime were taught how to become useful members of society. ”

“ Each State had its agricultural college and experiment station, mainly supported by United States funds provided under the Morrill Acts. Soils, crops, animal breeds, methods of tillage, dairying, and breeding were scientifically examined. Forestry became a great interest. Intensive agriculture spread. By early ploughing and incessant use of cultivators keeping the surface soil a mulch, arid tracts were rendered to a great extent independent of both rainfall and irrigation. Improved machinery made possible the farming of vast areas with few hands. ”

“ The only effect of the 1935 amendments of the statute, in so far as they have to do with the definition of a farmer was do make it clear that farming operations include dairy farming and the production of poultry and livestock products in their unmanufactured state as well as the cultivation of the products of the soil. ”

“ Let our government instead take over all private, state, or federal unproductive lands, whether it is fertile, arid or marsh. Statistics from the United States Department of Agriculture Bureau of Agriculture Economics on federal rural lands, on page 7, shows that the federal lands, swamps and marshes are 3,000,000 acres, barren and brush land 40,000,000 acres, non-forested range land 234,000,000 acres, crop land 4,000,000 acres ”

“ It is preferable that they should produce farm crops instead of tree crops if the land is best adapted to agricultural use. It is an economic necessity that all lands in this country best suited for farming purposes should be tilled. Our ever-increasing population demands that every acre of land useful for growing crops should be cleared and devoted to farming. ”