| Show agriculture the ba basis is of prosperity if tiny an doubt existed that agriculture cil ture esthe is the true basis of the prosperity of the united states it wu must st surely give ww way before the ithe astounding array ar ray of figures presented by the sebret secretary ary of agriculture A in his thirteenth annual report figures of statistics that reach into the billions become at least to the average mind merely symbolical but when the secretary tells us that for the past year the value of farm arm pio products ducts in tile the united states is and that y it represents a gain of over the year proceeding we can understand why it is that not even our vast ma manufacturing n 11 t cr activity w ai vity expressed in great stool i mills machine shops and factories ies innumerable can compare in h the value valoe of its output with the products of the farm to our excellent state agri cultural colleges and the various educational institutions devoted to agriculture to say nothing of the work of the bureau of agriculture culture a is due much of the cred it for tho present prosperity the farmer of today to day Is getting a larger return from the land because of bis more intimate irti mate I 1 knowledge of the character of the soil t the he nature of the crops for which the soil is adapted and the lie proper times seasons and methods of plowing seed time and harvest A these influences coupled with t T ni f t as yf f t l ft ta 1 ff the rapid increase in the acreage of cultivated land and the breaking up of the old ranges and huge wheat farms into smaller holdings on which intensive cultivation ti is carried on have served during the past decade to ju jut just t about double the annual value ue of farm products the increase being from to 0 the total value for the last 11 years reaches the enormous sum of seventy billion bil lion dollars and the farmers are e enjoying a period of eld prosperity this princely sum has served to sweep away the farm mortgage that nightmare of the struggling 0 husbandman of fifteen or twenty years ngo ago it has established banks has bas re placed the old tu tumble m ble down hom homestead e with modern homes filled with the latest conveniences of civilize civi civilization liza tion by telegraph telephone and railroad it has brought the farmer into nito intimate touch with the outside world making him in no mean sense cosino cosmopolitan politan an and dit it has served to render doubly secure the traditional u right of the farmer fa to be considered as the backbone bachbot e of the nation in its larger f financial inan and political int crests rests |
