Show THE OLD SETTLER by albert ra R lyman before saying more about the advantages van lages san juan inherits from people who ilis appeared from this country centuries ago it should be made clear that the ideas of their farming farmin gr are not offered in thoughtless disregard of the Ir progress ogress which seven hundred years has made in farming the last fifty years and more especially the last ten years has made farming something which it originally wasat it Is worthy of note too that farming right now is in process of transition from which it will nill never be recognized again as tb the same animal it is claimed that crops of afie future will vill be produced on but a small fraction of the area which has been considered necessary and that hat the major part of the present carmi farming 1 n regions will be surrendered again 1 fo forests aal wild gane it s also probable that the crop of the future will be produced with but a fration fraction of the line and pains it has cost hitherto bither tot and that it will loe be a better crop croll it is probable that life will be orf of its drudgery that our present crude methods will mark us as simple slaves to ignorance that is what the future has is in store but it has not yet arrived and the best we can do is to avail ourselves of what is now within reach there is to be synthetic bread butter beet beef and eggs there is to be synthetic vegetables synthetic cow feed wool leather and fuel and the broad acreage of today will not be necessary tor for the production of these things the part of this which concerns us most and which is reachable right now il the fact of intensive farming fanning think of intensive intense e as the opposite of extensive think of it too as economical as compared with extravagant all america and the west in particular with its limitless hernto territory ry has made a prodigal use of land and has developed a most slovenly sy system stem ot of farming this standard stan daiZ d the west is criminally low american agriculture is only percent efficient today on a scale of most efficient methods let the coefficient of be doubled that will be 2 96 which Is still below alix til coefficient of european agriculture in tho the old country w lp re land is crowded and general depleted with long usage they have learel to make a small field do for them what we have failed to make a large field do for us not scarcity of land but changed conditions demand of us new efficiency in farming the slovenly farmer fanner is already damned intensive farming despite the increased cost of fertilizer and water control is more economical in the long run than extensive farming hence the forward trend is towards growing larger crop yields and smaller areas of land because the crop is likely tobe ot of better quality with less labor cost and less tax and rent the belief has been prevalent an acre of land could produce just so much corn com or wheat or cottor cotton and no more the is changing this idea by demonstrating that poor land can be changed into the best by application of intensive farm methods the the average yield of corn in this country for example Is bushels the maintains that the calculated maximum yield d of corn is bushels an acre and as a matter of record this yield has actually been reached the present day yield of wheat is only 84 percent of the calculated calculate d possible yield it the best were used and so it zoes with ill all the major crops on the farms of colorado alone the axtens extensive lve farm with its expensive and formidable array of equipment has become a disappointment yet dry farm experts have pronounced san juan county the most likely section in the ithe west one san juan dry farm produced bushels of oats per acre our crops of corn wheat and sorgues compare sufficiently favorable with Irre irrigated gated crops to justify big hopen hopeni for this section when a better knowledge of the business begins taking men from big farming district leaving the districts to grow forests and wild animals they will gather to and not from san juan certain things which can be done here towards howards the coming intensive program will be considered next time |