CHAPTER VI. 1865-1912. AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT AND PROBLEMS. - prising portion of our eastern and immigrant population. With a courage and optimism worthy of the high cause upon which they were embarked, they braved the dangers of the wilderness and the horrors of Indian warfare that they might establish homes in this new and golden West. Upon their hardships, their sufferings, their mighty labors, their self-denials upon their very lives, as upon a tragic foundation - rest our fruitful western agriculture, our mining industries, and the wealth and eminence of our stately cities of the West. Agriculture in the West as determined by pioneer migration - Shifting of rural population affected by the law of supply and demand - Increase in rural population in agricultural and other farm products since 1870 — Conditions favoring our agricultural development - Rise in wages of farm labor — The prairies of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Red River valleys - The Homestead and the Bonanza farmer - Agricultural research and the Department of Agriculture - Work of the Bureau of Animal Industry The application of science to agriculture - The cultivation of plants and the breeding of animals Coöperation in rural communities - Problems of conservation and reclamation Rural educational development - Social and religious advance - Artistic progress. Migration to the great prairies and plains of the West was interrupted at its height by the Civil War. In 1865, recovering from this check, the movement assumed greater force than ever, thousands of courageous men and women seeking the great West in mover wagons, by the onpushing lines of railway, and by water. Those of us who, from the vantage point of our farmsteads in the Middle West, saw the daily passing of those picturesque prairie schooners and wagon trains; who beheld at its height this living flood flinging itself against the barriers of frontier hardship and border warfare, inundating the short-grass plains, overflowing even the natural barrier of the Rockies, and spreading out upon the shores of the Pacific,witnessed indeed a wonderful pageant of American National life. The individuals composing this human flood came from the most enter * Prepared for this history by Willet M. Hays, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. This great continental migration has not ceased even yet, but various facts indicate that the movement is nearing an end. In the first place, for a decade or more the rural population of Iowa has been decreasing. Then, too, the movement into the great plains, the Rocky Mountains, and the far West has projected a great offshoot northwestward into Canadian territory, where hundreds of thousands of people, largely from the Mid apple and peach growing is making certain hilly sections of the Applachian regions more populous. The higher prices of farm products cause New England farmers to revive many of the abandoned farms. There are yearly movements of farmers into newly irrigated areas and newly drained swamp regions. dle West, have gone into Assiniboia, Alberta, and other northwestern territories in the last few years. Finally, many farm people have moved from the prairies of the Middle West to the South and even to the Eastern States. For a time the farmers of the eastern section saw their lands depreciate in value owing to the onrush of food and fibre from the great, easily subdued and cheaply purchased farms of the West, both north and south; but now that the western farms have risen nearly to their normal selling prices, eastern farms are again coming into their own. Henceforth the movement of the farm population from one place to another will largely follow the lines of local profit-making from the land. At present the commercial success of NUMBER OF PERSONS (MALE and Female) 10 YEARS OLD AND OVER ENGAGED IN AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1870, 1880, 1890* AND 1900†. Easy methods of transportation, a universal distribution of information, a uniform language, much travel on business or pleasure, and habits of migration,- all these make the people move readily from areas oversupplied with farmers to such as promise better and more permanent profits. The following tabular statement gives the increase of rural population by States since 1870, as shown by the United States census: NUMBER OF PERSONS (MALE AND FEMALE) 10 YEARS OLD AND OVER ENGAGED IN AGRICULTURE IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1870, 1880, 1890* AND 1900†- Continued. AREA, PRODUCTIon and Value of Crops Indicated, 1866 and 1910, WITH INCREASE (+) OR DECREASE (−) Acres Bushels Dollars Acres Bushels Dollars Acres Bushels Dollars 34,306,538 867,946, 295 411,450,830 104,035,000 2,886, 260,000 1,384,817,000+69,728,462+2,018,313,705 +973,366,170 408,388,000+28,683,781 +918,199,923 +314,330.055 Corn.. Wheat. Oats.. Rye. 34,897,000 24,953,000 +636,967 100,426,000 +7,250,468 17,598,000 3,720,000 349,032,000 194,566,000 +2,650,619 Hay.. 11,636,000 -185,624 842,252,000+33,346,096 +14,032,056 +162,548,193 +7,803,284 +92,509,658 -5,193,839 -3,777,160 +298,309,447 +143,843,447 +47,599,373 +621,416,229 * Engaged in agriculture, fisheries and mining. † Engaged in agricultural pursuits. Tons. AGRICULTURE. The increase in the production of fruit crops, also live stock, dairy, 343 poultry, and forest products from 1870 to 1900, is shown in the next table. ORCHARD PRODUCTS, LIVE STOCK, DAIRY PRODUCTS, POULTRY AND FOREST PRODUCTS IN THE UNITED STATES, BY DECADES, 1870-1910, AS COMPILED FROM CENSUS REPORTS. During the last third of the Nineteenth century the combination of cheap, new lands, of agricultural machinery propelled by horses and motors, of railway transportation, and of a vigorous pioneer population, pushed the production of farm products beyond the demands of even a rapidly increasing city and manufacturing population. This kept the level of farm prices relatively very low. But manufactures steadily increased, the cities kept on growing, the foreign demand for our farm products continued unabated, all at an increased speed which a settled agriculture could not maintain; with the result that for a decade prices have gone up to what seems to be a permanently higher level. The logical result was that land began to rise rapidly in value in the producing regions of the Middle West. This tendency to an increased valuation of lands has spread to the South, to the great plains, to the Far West, as well as to the Eastern States. 285,609,440 No data. 1,790,097,244 250,623,354 $109,864,774 $140,867,347 199,501, 108 $4,760,060,093 1,939,947,444 295,880, 190 $195,306,283 Another matter profoundly affecting the prices of farm products was the rapid development of manufacturing, transportation, merchandising, and other non-agricultural industries. The profits in these lines of trade made the payment of higher wages possible. The cities and manufacturing centers, therefore, drew upon the rural commuities for workers. This in turn reacted upon the price of farm labor, which is now almost double that of the preceding generation. Henceforth those who consume farm products must pay interest on high valuations of farm lands and for highpriced farm labor, as well as farmers' profits comparable to those accruing in other lines of industrial and professional work. It may be assumed, therefore, that we are in a permanent period of higher prices for farm products. Of course there will be fluctuations, but these will be at a higher average level. Almost as enticing as the gold fields of California were the rich prairies of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Red River valleys. Here was a land of abundant rainfall and an almost unparalleled richness of soil that offered untold wealth to those who should be the first to tap its boundless resources; and here came the bonanza farmer. With a picturesqueness of operation perhaps never again to be equalled, with a fine disregard of the needs of the soil and of the rights of the coming generations, he yearly sowed and reaped his thousands of acres of wheat, marketing the product and, incidentally, with every crop reducing the productivity of the soil. And what the bonanza farmer did on a large scale thousands of homesteaders did on a smaller scale, until even the well-nigh inexhaustible wealth of those fertile alluvial soils shrank so from year to year that both the bonanza farmer and the homesteader were brought face to face with the problem of decreasing yields due to lessened soil fertility. In the meantime there had grown up, in the form of the United States Department of Agriculture, an institution destined to solve the problem which confronted the wheat farmer. In the first year of the Civil War Congress passed an act establishing this department for the purpose of gathering by research a body of knowledge concerning soil, crops, live stock, farm management, and general rural economy. During the same session of Congress the law was enacted which established a college of agriculture in every State, thus inaugurating our agricultural educational service. This same Congress passed also the Homestead Law dividing all the public lands then remaining on the family farm basis, practically giving them to the people and thus inaugurating the plan of the common farm throughout the country. Thus President Lincoln signed the law providing for family farms, the laws under which the Nation and the States, by research and vocational education, secure the information necessary to enable the millions of farmers to make their farming profitable. The Department of Agriculture grew rather slowly until the end of the Nineteenth century. During the last two decades, however, it has grown from an institution with a few hundred workers to a great department, with 12,000 or 15,000 employees. It is now charged by Congress with the expenditure of nearly $20,000,000, about onethird of which is devoted to agricultural research. This Department employs experts in all lines of agricultural investigation and experimentation, the results of whose labors swell the sum total of scientific agricultural knowledge and aid every farmer in solving his numerous and perplexing individual problems. Among this great body of public workers are soil experts, whose efforts are directed toward answering the great questions pertaining to soil management, fertility and conservation; live stock experts, who |