The Story of the Soil Part 20

"I'm very glad you introduced yourself, Mr. Johnston," said he.

"Want to get a place down here, do you? Very likely I can help you some. I've helped several friends of mine to get good places. What are you after ?"

"I am thinking of getting a place of about three hundred acres,"

said Percy, "and I shall certainly appreciate any a.s.sistance or information you can give me."

"Whe-e-ew. What are you up to? Want to sell us a site for the new Government insane hospital, or going to lay out another addition to the city?"

"Neither," replied Percy. "I am looking for a piece of cheap land that I can build up and make into a good farm."

"Oh, ho!" said the Congressman. "That's it, is it? Well, now let me tell you that you've struck the wrong neck of the woods to find land that you can make a good farm out of. The land about here is cheap enough all right--cheaper than the votes of some politicians, but it can't be built up into good farms. Don't attempt the impossible, my friend. If you want cheap land for town sites or insane hospitals, right here's the country to land in; but if you want a good farm, you stay right in Illinois, or else follow Horace Greeley's advice and 'go West.'. That's a good suggestion for you, too. Just go West and get three hundred and twenty acres of the richest soil lying out of doors."

"There is not much land left in the West where the rainfall is sufficient for good crops," said Percy.

"Then take irrigated land. The Government is getting under way some big irrigation projects, and you ought to get in on the ground floor on one of those tracts. It is a fact that the apples from some of those irrigated farms sometimes bring more than $500 an acre."

"I don't doubt that," said Percy. "An ill.u.s.tration or example can usually be found to prove almost anything. I know that the Perrine Brothers, who conduct a fruit farm down in 'Egypt,' actually received $800 per acre for the apples grown on thirteen acres one year; and there is plenty of such land in Egypt that can be bought for less than $40 an acre, and near to the great markets. I am told, however, that there are from a dozen to a hundred applicants for every farm opened to settlement in the West in these years, and it is estimated that all of the arid lands that can ever be put under irrigation in the United States will provide homes for no more than our regular increase in population in five years, and that the only other remaining rich lands--the swamp areas--will be occupied by the increase of ten years in our population. It has seemed to me that it is high time we came back to these partially worn-out Eastern lands and begin to build them up. Here the rainfall is abundant, the climate is fine, and the markets are the best, and there are millions of acres of these Eastern lands that lie as nicely for farming as the Western prairies. Why should they not be built up into good farms?"

"Now, let me give you a little fatherly advice," said the Congressman, laying his hand on Percy's shoulder. "I tell you this land never was any good. If the East and South hadn't been settled first, they never would have been settled. Poor land remains poor land, and good land remains good land; and if you want to farm good land, you better stay right in the corn belt. You can't grow anything on these Eastern lands without fertilizer and the more you fertilize the more you must, and still the land remains as poor as ever. Just leave off the fertilizer one year and your crop is not worth harvesting. These lands never were any good and they never will be."

"But that is hardly in accord with what the people now living on these old Eastern farms report for the conditions of agriculture in the times of their ancestors."

"Oh, yes, I know people are always talking about their ancestors, and especially Virginians; but, Caesar! I wonder what their ancestors would think of them! You can't afford to take any stock in the ancestry of these old Virginians."

"I call to mind that the historical records give much information along this line," said Percy. "It is recorded that mills for grinding corn and wheat were common, that the flour of Mount Vernon was packed under the eye of Was.h.i.+ngton, and we are told that barrels of flour bearing his brand pa.s.sed in the export markets without inspection. History records that the plantations of Virginia usually pa.s.sed from father to son, according to the law of entail, and that the heads of families lived like lords, keeping their stables of blooded horses and rolling to church or town in their coach and six, with outriders on horseback. Their s.p.a.cious mansions were sometimes built of imported brick; and, within, the grand staircases, the mantles, and the wainscot reaching from floor to ceiling, were of solid mahogany, elaborately carved and paneled. The sideboards shone with gold and silver plate, and the tables were loaded with the luxuries from both the New and the Old World, and plenty of these old mansions still exist in dilapidated condition."

"That all sounds good for history," said the Congressman, "but the historian probably got his information from some of these old Virginians whose only religion is ancestral wors.h.i.+p. If the lands were ever any good they'd be good now. Good lands stay good. As an Illinois man, you ought to know that. My father settled in Illinois and I tell you his land is better to-day than it was the day he took it from the Government."

"My grandfather also took land from the Government," said Percy, "but the land that he first put under cultivation is not producing as good crops now as it used to, even though--"

"Then it must be you don't farm it right. Of course you don't want to corn your land to death. I lived on the farm long enough to learn that; but if you'll only grow two or three crops of corn and then change to a crop of oats, you'll find your land ready for corn again; and, if you'll sow clover with the oats and plow the clover under the next spring, you'll find the land will grow more corn than ever your grandfather grew on it."

"But how can we maintain the supply of plant food in the soil by merely subst.i.tuting oats for corn once in three or four years and turning under perhaps a ton of clover as green manure. That amount of clover would contain no more nitrogen than 40 bushels of corn would remove from the soil, and of course the clover has no power to add any phosphorus or other mineral elements."

"Oh, yes. I've heard all about that sort of talk. You know I'm a U.

of I. man myself. I studied chemistry in the University under a man who knew more in a minute than all the 'tommy rot' you've been filled up with. I also lived on an Illinois farm, and I speak from practical experience. I know what I am talking about, and I don't care a rap for all the theories that can be stacked up by your modern college professor, who wouldn't know a pumpkin if he met one rolling down hill. I tell you G.o.d Almighty never made the black corn belt land to be worn out, and he doesn't create people on this earth to let 'em starve to death. Don't you understand that?"

"I am afraid that I do not," replied Percy. "I have received no such direct communication; but I saw a letter written from China by a missionary describing the famine-stricken districts in which he was located. He wrote the letter in February and said that at that time the only practical thing to do in that district was to let four hundred thousand people starve and try to get seed grain for the remainder to plant the spring crops. I have a "Handbook of Indian Agriculture" written by a professor of agriculture and agricultural chemistry at one of the colleges in India. I got it from one of the Hindu students who attended the University when I was there. This book states that famine, local or general, has been the order of the day in India, and particularly within recent years. It also states that in one of the worst famines in India ten million people died of starvation within nine months. The average wage of the laboring man in India, according to the Governmental statistics, is fifty cents a month, and in famine years the price of wheat has risen to as high as $3.60 a bushel. This writer states that the most recent of all famines; namely, that prevailing in most parts of India from 1897 to 1900, was severer than the famine of 1874 to 1878. No, Sir, I am not sure that I understand just what G.o.d's intentions are concerning the corn belt, but it is recorded that the Lord helps him who helps himself, and that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. If G.o.d made the common soil in America with a limited amount of phosphorus in it, He also stored great deposits of natural rock phosphate in the mines of several States, and perhaps intended that man should earn his bread by grinding that rock and applying it to the soil. Possibly the Almighty intended--"

"Now, I'm very sorry, Mr. Johnston, but I have an engagement which I must keep, and you'll have to excuse me just now. I'm mighty glad to have met you and I'd like to talk with you for an hour more along this line; but you take my advice and stick to the corn belt land.

Above all, don't begin to use phosphates or any sort of commercial fertilizer; they'll ruin any land in a few years; that's my opinion.

But then, every man has a right to his own opinion. and perhaps you have a different notion. Eh?"

"I think no man has a right to an opinion which is contrary to fact," Percy replied. "This whole question is one of facts and not of opinions. One fact is worth more than a wagonload of incorrect opinions. But I must not detain you longer. I am very glad to have met you here. In large measure the statesmen of America must bear the responsibility for the future condition of agriculture and the other great industries of the United States, all of which depend upon agriculture for their support and prosperity. Good bye."

"I'll agree with you there all right; the farmer feeds them all.

Good bye."

CHAPTER XXV

A LESSON ON TOBACCO

PERCY found Leonardtown almost in the center of St. Mary county, situated on Breton bay, an arm of the lower Potomac.

From the data recorded on the back of his map of Maryland, Percy noted that a population of four hundred and fifty-four found support in this old county seat, according to the census of I 900. After spending the day in the country, he found himself wondering how even that number of people could be supported, and then remembered that there is one industry of some importance in the United States which exists independent of agriculture, an industry which preceded agriculture, and which evidently has also succeeded agriculture to a very considerable extent in some places; namely, fis.h.i.+ng.

"Clams, oysters and fish, and in this order," he said to himself, "apparently const.i.tute the means of support for some of these people."

And yet the country was not depopulated, although very much of the arable land was abandoned for agricultural purposes. A farm of a hundred acres might have ten acres under cultivation, this being as much as the farmer could "keep up," as was commonly stated. This meant that all of the farm manure and other refuse that could be secured from the entire farm or hauled from the village, together with what commercial fertilizer the farmer was able to buy, would not enable him to keep more than ten acres of land in a state of productiveness that justified its cultivation. Tobacco, corn, wheat and cowpeas were the princ.i.p.al crops. Corn was the princ.i.p.al article of food, with wheat bread more or less common. The cowpeas and corn fodder usually kept one or more cows through the winter when they could not secure a living in the brush. Tobacco, the princ.i.p.al "money crop," was depended on to buy clothing, and "groceries," which included more or less fish and pork, although some farmers "raised their own meat," in part by fattening hogs on the acorns that fell in the autumn from the scrub oak trees.

One farm of one hundred and ninety acres owned by an old lady, who lived in the nearby country village was rented for $100 a year, which amounted to about fifty-two and one-half cents an acres as the gross income to the landowner. After the taxes were paid, about thirty cents an acre remained for repairs on buildings and fences and interest on the investment.

Percy spent some time on a five hundred acre farm belonging to an old gentleman who still gave his name as F. Allerton Jones, a man whose father had been prominent in the community. According to the county soil map which had been presented to Percy by the Bureau of Soils, the soil of this farm was all Leonardtown loam, except about forty acres which occupied the sides of a narrow valley a bend of which cut the farm on the south side.

"My father had this whole farm under cultivation," said Mr. Jones, "except the hillsides. But what's the use? We get along with a good deal less work, and I've found it better to cultivate less ground during the forty odd years I've had to meet the bills. But I've kept up more of my land than most of my neighbors. I reckon I've got about eighty acres of good cleared land yet on this farm, and the leaves and pine needles we rake up where the trees grow on the old fields make a good fertilizer for the land we aim to cultivate, and I get a good many loads of manure from friends who live in the village and keep a cow or a horse.

"The last crop I raised on that east field, where you see those scrub pines, was in 1881. I finished cultivating corn there the day I heard about President Garfield being shot; and it was a mighty hot July day too. My neighbor, Seth Whitmore, who died about ten years ago, came along from the village and waited for me to come to the end of the row down by the road and he told me that Garfield was shot. We both allowed the corn would be a pretty fair crop and when I gathered the fodder that fall there was a right smart of a corn crop. Yes, Sir, it's pretty good land, but we don't need much corn, no how, and we can make more money out of tobacco. Of course it takes lots of manure and fertilizer to grow a good patch of tobacco, but good tobacco always brings good money."

"About how much money do you get for an acre of tobacco?" asked Percy.

"That varies a lot with the quality and price--sometimes $100--sometimes $300, when the trust don't hold the price down on us. We can raise good tobacco and good tobacco brings us good money.

We can always manure an acre or two for tobacco and get our groceries and some clothes now and then, and that's about all anybody gets in this world, I reckon. But taxes are mighty high, I tell you. About $75 to $80 I have to pay. Are taxes high out West?"

"We pay about forty to fifty cents an acre in the corn belt," Percy replied; "but, in a course I took in economics, I learned that the taxes do not vary in proportion to land values. Poor lands, if inhabited, must always pay heavy taxes; whereas, large areas of good land carry lighter taxes compared with their earning capacity. You must provide your regular expenses for county officers, county courthouse, jail, and poorhouse, about the same as we do. Your roads and bridges cost as much as ours; and the schools in the South must cost more than ours, for a complete double system of schools is usually provided.

"But did you say that you paid fifty cents an acre in taxes?" asked Mr. Jones.

"Yes, about that, in the corn belt," replied Percy, "but not so much in Southern Illinois where the land is poor. I think the farmers in that section pay taxes as low as yours. Perhaps twenty cents an acre."

"Do you mean to say that you have poor land in Illinois?"

"Yes, the common prairie land of Southern Illinois must be called poor as compared with the corn belt land. There is a good deal of land in Southern Illinois that was put under cultivation before 1820, and eighty crops must have made a heavy draft upon the store of plant food originally contained in those soils."

"Only since 1820? Why, we began to till the soil right here, Young Man, in St. Mary County, in 1634 and don't you know, Sir, that we had a rebellion here as early as 1645? Yes, Sir, that was one hundred and seventy-five years before 1820. So you've raised only eighty crops and the land is already getting poor, and we've raised two hundred and fifty crops--well, maybe, not quite so many, for we've been giving our land a good deal of rest for the last fifty or sixty years; but my grandfather used to raise twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre with the help of a hundred pounds of land-plaster, and I've no doubt I could do it again today if I cared to raise wheat, but one acre of tobacco is worth ten of wheat, so why should I bother with wheat?"

"Twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre," repeated Percy, half to himself. "The total supply of phosphorus still remaining in the plowed soil would be sufficient for only twenty more crops like that. Two hundred years of such crops would require 1600 pounds of phosphorus, making nearly 1800 pounds at the beginning, if it all came from the plowed soil. That is one and a half times as much as is now contained in our common corn belt prairie land."

"More stuff in our land than in yours, did you say?" questioned the old man. "I told you we had pretty good soil here, but I've always allowed your soil was better, but maybe not. I tell you manure lasts on this land. You can see where you put it for nigh twenty years.

Then we rest our land some and that helps a sight, and if the price stays up we make good money on tobacco. I'm sorry your land is getting so poor out West, especially if you can't raise tobacco.

Ever tried tobacco, Young Man?--gosh, but you remind me of one of them Government fellows who came driving along here once when Bob and his brothers were plowing corn right here about three years ago.

Bob's my tenant's n.i.g.g.e.r, and he ain't no fool either, even if he is colored; but then, to tell the truth, he ain't much colored. Well, I was sitting under a tree right here smoking and keeping an eye on the n.i.g.g.e.rs unbeknownst to them when one of them Government fellows stopped his horse as Bob was turning the end, and says he to Bob: