Show 1 CHEAP MEAT UA YS ARE GONE FOREVER Food Certain to Cost Cas More inThis in inThis inThis This Country for a Variety of Reasons OUR RESOURCES FADING CREAM OF FERTILITY OF OUR LANDS SKIMMED Bread B ad and meat will wilt never be ba lower lowet than they are aie now they the will boon soon go higher These Thele are are the conclusions of Dr Eu Eugene Eugene Eugene gene Davenport dean of the College n ge of Agriculture of the University of Illinois olsIn In his article in the April Issue of or Good o d Housekeeping Magazine he says Bays We Wo have skimmed the cream of ot the fertility off most of ot our lands Great stretches str tc of country have already been abandoned and all lands that have been farmed for half a century and declining in production except the few that have been fertilized at the expense of others near nearby nearby by b No lands are good enough to endure a quarter of a century of exclusive grain farming without marked decrease of or yield One field at the University of ot Ill has raised corn successively ly thirty years and it has declined in yield on o the average a bushel a ear though it was w s superior land at the beginning and was too rich ever to wear weal out Demand Sure to Increase Someone has said that the time has hascom come com when to fire firo a cannon represents the cost of oC a college education and to build a battleship costs a university These conditions will one day amend pub public pUblic public lic policies but it will only Increase the demand for bread and now that we are checking the tha agencies of human destruction destruction destruction tion we wo must understand what it will mean in population Every life saved and every Infant preserved adds not only to num numbers but to the average length of ot human life lite and correspondingly to the demand demund for food h I cannot connot see therefore any lasting re ye relief relief lief net from the prospect of permanent high nigh prices for tor food Improved Imp oed methods of production will defer deter the day and soften its coming and reduced wages conse consequent consequent consequent quent upon a dense population will 11 re result result result sult in a forced demand for a lessened amount and a cheaper kind of food for tor forthe forthe the masses and end this more than all other causes will keep prices in check But Dut back of it all lies the fact of the pres pressure pressure pressure sure of population and the lessening fer fertility fertility that no race yet has ever stood against nor can stand against except by new and permanent methods of ot agriculture agriculture agriculture ture such as have not yet been generally established Day of Cheap Meat Over I We cannot afford atford to live in a fools paradise in this matter The day of cheap meat Is over and that tha t of cheap white bread Is passing and unless we can speedily establish a more permanent ag agriculture agriculture agriculture than has ever yet been established established then will prices not only go high higher er but the most of men will be forced to subsist on the cheaper foods This for sociological reasons as well as for tor con considerations of ot humanity is eminently un undesirable undesirable desirable ble The era of ot food Is la fairly upon us In spite of ot our boundless natural resources and our our inexhaustible ible fertility and the most that we can cando cando cando do is to retard the speed and soften the hardship of its coming by a timely and scientific attention to our agriculture Much Is expected through reclamation reclamation reclamation tion of arid regions by irrigation but the areas are relatively small probably all told not exceeding that of ot Illinois and anI the great staple grains grasses and meats will always be raised on gated lands These are largely occupied already The largest relief comes In breaking up the range for grain farming but this means the last of cheap meat and it means neither a permanent food tood supply nor a final reduction In price The permanent food supply is attainable only by permanent erI systems of agriculture that increase instead of ot decreasing decre fertility and even these do not prevent population from overtaking production In the end high prices for food are Inevitable and aid a d it looks as If we had fairly started on ort orf the road and if It that is so the only financial relief is cheaper food tood or less of it itI ItI itI I am In all things an optimist not a pessimist but we cannot afford to close our eyes to very evident facts We have lived as have no other people In a super superabundance superabundance superabundance abundance of food That time is over I expect fluctuations in prices but for the reasons outlined I believe that the era of cheap food Is past forever |