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Show prow more crops every year but not enough to food our Increasing pop lilution and keep up our exports. "The federal government is expend-! expend-! ing large sums to Irrigate more land which Is wine, but the amount of ; water Impounded Is small compared 1 with the volume that flows to wasie In a recent visit to the mountain , slates 1 Baw that the most advanced ' localities are every year making more ; reservoirs to hold winter and spring flows of waters that &o free of man's I restraint to the ocean. The nation. I the states and private enterprises j 1 (Continued on Page Seven.) j atSl He Tells of the Diminishing Dimin-ishing Productivity of the Farms St. Paul. Sept. 7. James Wilson, secretary of the department of agriculture, ag-riculture, before the Conservation Congress, made an address on Arner- ; ican farms and farm land, as follows: fol-lows: "The most important feature of farm conservation is the soil. The farmer prospers while the soil responds re-sponds to his work and yields good cropj; he ceases to do well when tho refuses to respond to his labor. "The people of the older nations take care of soil fertility as a matter of prime necessity and long ago ascertained ascer-tained the proper succeson of ciopd, their relation to the soil and the feeding of man and animals. They knew the soil must be fed and tha proper physical conditions to mala-t?lii. mala-t?lii. and learned lrom experience how-to how-to do it. They learned that tho decay- ing plant returned to the soil was the best food the growing plant could have. They became aware that the removal of crops from the farm resulted re-sulted In soil deterioration unless tho equivalent wa. returned fro:u some source, Ancient history tells us that i the legume was used In rotation before be-fore Hellrleg' 1 discovered Its office in lixing nitrogen lu the soil; the value of bones wai known as a fertilizer fertil-izer before Lieblg gave us their analysis. an-alysis. The office of sulphuric acid was known In making superphosphate superphos-phate through which the husbandman husband-man got the immediate benefit of the lertllkcrs In the bones. "During the short history of our I country we have hu.l new oils to I draw upon when exhaustion resulted j from the robbing process and much of the nations prosperity Is the equlv- I eopb have been well fed and until recently they have been cheaply fed. This has been due in part no doubt Uj the occupancy of land easily obtainable ob-tainable as soon as the older refused to yield abundantly and U one of the prime causes of farm desertion that j now attracting s;) much attention. "Manufactures Increased and prospered pros-pered greatly during the last half century because food was cheaper In our country than In any one with which we competed. Food Is cheap no longer. Population ha Increased lifter thati production from the soil. A new soil given to all who desired, was the basis of our pnt prosperity. Th" soils of our oldr setilemeit were robhed td neb-rte in the cast nnd In the ouih; they had lit-i lit-i tie or no attention. Rnllwavs we.-e puihel Into the Mississippi valley where the glaclat.'d soll.-i were so neh. so easily cultivated, nnd supposed sup-posed to be Inexhaustible. The government gov-ernment policy of giving farms to tho people has exhausted the supply in the regions where rainfall usually assure as-sure go-j.l crops. The mountain ranges hold th' snow and some valley val-ley land are being Irrigated which j ykbl abundantly, but only a small per cent of land west of the one I hundredth meridian Is being Irricat-I Irricat-I ed So we have found our llmlta-I llmlta-I Hons. Bread and meat are t-o dear I that cmplovers of la'-or are under the necessity of Increasing comjen latloit ' thxt people may 11 v. ! "Sine the Civil war heavy export-) export-) tillr.ns fnuu the farm have paid for-, for-, elgn debts and kepi the balance of trade In cur favor. Exportatlona 1 f'om the fjrm are steadily falling olf. Loth of Ujeat and bread stuff-. We SECY. WILSON AT ST. PAUL (Continued From Page One. 1 have ample fields In which to work toward greater crop production in this ulrectlon. "The lands of the mountain states are with little exception very rich in plant food, and while water continues to escape In fuch large quantities it will pay to turn them on these lands and reap the heavy crops that certainly cer-tainly tollow. After all the Janda aro irrigated that can be, practically, practical-ly, immense areas remain that He above gravity Irrigation. Efforts are being mado by the federal government the eutes, private corporations and Individuals to grow crops on the high lying lands that have eighteen Inches of annual rainfall and Ices. The department of agriculture, in obedience to congresdlonal requirements require-ments is exploring similar lands that exist under tdmllar conditions throughout the old world. Some success Is being bad. A wheal fro.n Africa and Asia glvei us C0.000.n00 bushels a year from the high lying light rainfall states; a grass and alfalfa al-falfa from Turkestan, alfalfas, clovers and vetches from Siberia. oat3 from northern Sweden, millets from the Orieut, sorguui from Africa, are samples sam-ples of what are being found by our explorers that thrive on our highlands high-lands of the west. "At thirteen stations In seven states we have parties of scientists studying methods of plant management on our dry lands. If our growth In population popula-tion is to continue we must look to the soil and conserve moisture which Is the transportation system of the plant. Without adding water enough beyond what falls from the clouds It Is practical increase crop yields by better soli management and adding fertilizing material that we permit to fo to foreign countries. We furnish nitrogen mill feeds to thrifty foreigners for-eigners who know their value to feed their cattle to make meats and dairy products and keep up the fertility fer-tility of their eoils. These should be fed on the farms that grow, the grain from which they aro made. New lands are not to be had for the asking In the thirty-Inch rainfall districts dis-tricts of the country. If we are to prosper as a people we must give closer attention to our solla nnd conserve con-serve their fertility by all means in our power. "Our lighter soils are affected hy drouths that extend over periods during tho growing season so long that maximum crops are not secured. We will in time find it necessary to follow the example set by European countries of dense population, of building reservoirs to impound overflow over-flow water to bo used during times of cirouth. These reservoirs are built from the sources of their river on down toward their mouths. Wo can do this with great profit in some of our states now. |