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Another curious thing may possibly interest you. The first time I went over to Ancon, which is on the west, the Pacific side-and I might explain about Ancon-there are three towns. There is the town of Panama, which stands on the Bay of Panama; a little distance off and connected with it, you can hardly tell where, is the American town of Ancon, and then across over a big hill is Balboa, the part in which the United States is making all its improvements-getting ready to take care of the transportation question. Now when I got down there, and I arrived rather early in the evening, I had a beautiful room assigned me. All the rooms have balconies. I went out and sat on the porch and looked at the Pacific Ocean. What, to my surprise, did I see? I didn't know what had happened, but I saw the moon rising out of the Pacific Ocean. Now take that in if you can. It was in the east-the Pacific Ocean was to the southeast of Panama, and the moon was rising out of the Pacific Ocean, as the sun did the next morning. I was completely turned around. The Isthmus of Panama almost describes the letter "S." We do not realize that unless we take an atlas and put it before us. If you ever see a drawing or illustration of the great work going on down there you will see how they always place Panama on the right-hand side of the map as you look at it. It seems all wrong. It ought not to be there. It did to me when I first saw it. I think I have talked about Panama long enough, and you must be tired, and I am quite sure the President will be here in the next few minutes. He is trying to get here as rapidly as possible. What he will tell you about conservation will be so much more than I can do. I thank you very much. (Applause)

Chairman CONDRA-I have a note from the director of the band saying that they can sing a certain song to be dedicated to the President. Dr. Hiner, have you the soloist there? Can you favor us with the song? It is to be sung next Saturday at Sedalia, I believe, and it has been dedicated to the President by his permission.

After the singing of the song, the President entered, accompanied by his official party and members of the Commercial Club and others, the audience rising and singing "America," after which long and loud cheering took place for several minutes.

President WALLACE-Ladies and Gentlemen, Members of the Conservation Congress: It is my high privilege and duty to introduce to you tonight, Hon. William H. Taft, President of the United States. (Loud applause and cheers)

ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

President TAFT-Your distinguished President, Dr. Wallace, a month or two ago wrote me and asked me to come before this Congress and advocate and talk about the conservation of the soil. If that subject does not address itself to you as a proper one in this Congress, you must blame your president. If what I say is not orthodox, you must blame him, because he called on me. But I am going to read you the best view that I can make from the consideration of the best authorities that I can find on that subject. And if you will bear with me, I will promise not to keep you long, for the reason that my knowledge on the subject will not consume a great deal of time.

At last year's convention of this Congress I had the honor and pleasure of delivering an address on the subject of conservation of our national resources, and therein attempted to state what the terms “conservation of our natural resources" meant, what were the statutes affecting and enforcing such conservation, classified the different public lands to which it would apply, and suggested what I thought was the proper method of disposing of each class of lands. Nothing has been done on this subject by Congress since that time, but it is hoped that the present Congress at its regular session will take up the question of the conservation of government land containing coal and phosphates or of furnish ing water power, adopt some laws that will permit the use and development of these lands in Alaska and in continental United States, and evolve a system by which the Government shall retain proper ultimate control of the lands, and at the same time offer to private investment sufficient returns to induce the outlay of capital needed to make the lands useful to the public. The discussion did not invoke the consideration any question which directly concerned the production of food.

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Tonight, however, I wish to consider in a summary way another aspect of conservation far more important than that of preserving for the public interests public lands, that is, the conservation of the soil with a view to the continued production of food in this country sufficient. to feed our growing population.

We have in continental United States about 1,900,000,000 acres. Of this the Agricultural Department, through its correspondents, estimate that 950,000,000 acres of this are capable of cultivation. Of this, 873,729,000 acres are now in farms. The remainder, about 1,000,000,000 acres, is land which is untillable. It is reasonably certain that substantially all the virgin soil of a character to produce crops has been taken up. It is doubtful how much of the part not included in farms can be brought into a condition where tillage will be profitable.

The total acreage of farms in the last ten years, although the pressure for increased acreage by reason of high farm prices was great, was only about four per cent, or about 32,000,000. There are upwards of

25,000,000 acres that will be brought in under our irrigation system, and perhaps more, and the amount of lands which can be drained and made useful for agriculture will amount to about 70,000,000 acres.

The total improved farm lands in the United States amount to 477,448,000 acres, which is an increase in the last ten years of 62,949,000, or fifteen and two-tenths per cent. The product per acre actually cultivated increased in the last ten years one per cent a year, or ten per cent. The total product increased in ten years nearly twenty per cent.

INCREASE OF POPULATION.

The population in this same time increased twenty-one per cent. If the population continues to increase at its present rate, we shall have in fifty years double the number of people we now have. It is necessary then that not only our acreage but our product per acre must increase proportionately so that our people may be fed. We must realize that the best land and easiest land to cultivate has been taken up and cultivated and that the additions to improved lands and to total acreage in the future must be of land much more expensive to prepare for tillage. The increase per acre of the product, too, must be steady each year, and each year an increase is more difficult. Still, even in the face of these facts, there is no occasion for discouragement. We are going to remain as a self-supporting country and raise food enough within our borders to feed our people. When we think that in Germany and Great Britain crops are raised from land which has been in cultivation for one thousand years, and that these lands are made to produce over two and three times per acre what the comparatively fresh lands in this country produce in the best states, it becomes very apparent that we shall be able to meet the exigency by better systems of farming and more intense and careful and industrious cultivation. The theory seems to have been in times past that soils became exhausted by constant cultivation, but the result in Europe, by which acres under constant use for producing crops for ten centuries are made now to produce crops three times those of this country, shows that there is nothing in this theory, and that successful farming can be continued on land long in use and great crops raised and garnered from it if only it be treated scientifically and in accordance with its necessity. There is nothing peculiar about soils in Europe that give the great yield per acre there and prevent its possibility in the United States. On the contrary, there is every reason to believe that the application of the same methods would produce just as large crops here as abroad.

One of the great reasons for discouragement felt by many who have written on this subject is found in the movement of the population from farm to city. This has reached such a point that the urban population is now forty-six per cent of the total, while the rural population is but fifty-three per cent, counting as urban all who live in cities exceed

ing 2,500 inhabitants. This movement has been persistent, and has made it very difficult for the farmers to secure adequate agricultural labor, with an increase in the price of labor which naturally follows such a condition. Still we ought to realize that enormous advances in the machinery used on the farm have reduced the necessity for a great number of farm hands on each farm.

THE COST OF FARM PRODUCTION.

Mr. Holmes, of the Department of Agriculture, in the Yearbook of that Department of 1899, points, out that between the years 1855 and 1894, the time of human labor required to produce one bushel of corn on an average declined from four hours and thirty-four minutes to forty-one minutes, and the cost of the human labor to produce this bushel declined from thirty-five and three-fourths cents to ten and onehalf cents. Between 1830 and 1896 the time of human labor required. for the production of a bushel of wheat was reduced from three hours to ten minutes, while the price of the labor required for this purpose declined from seventeen and three-fourths cents to three and one-half cents. Between 1860 and 1894 the time of human labor required for the production of a ton of hay was reduced from thirty-five and onehalf hours to eleven hours and thirty-four minutes, and the cost of labor per ton was reduced from $3.06 to $1.29.

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In 1899, the calculation made with respect to the reduction in the cost of labor for the production of seven crops of that year over the old time manner of production in the fifties and sixties, shows it to have been $681,000,000 for one year. But while it is possible to say that there be in the future improvements in machinery which will reduce the number of necessary hands on the farm, it is quite certain that in this regard the prospect of economy in labor for the future is not to be compared with that which has been effected in the last thirty years. Hence we must regard the question of available population and available labor in that population for the cultivation of the fields as an important consideration. My impression from an examination of the figures is that the change in this last decade from farm to city has not been as great in its percentage as it was in previous decades, and if this be true, it indicates that there is in the present situation an element that will help to cure the difficulty. Farm prices are increasing so rapidly and the profits of farming are becoming apparently much more certain and substantial. While the acreage of the improved land only increased 65,000,000, or fifteen per cent, and the total acreage only four per cent, the value of the farms in money increased from $20,000,000,000 to $40,000,000,000 in ten years—an enormous advance. This, of course, was due somewhat to the investment of additional money in the improvement of land, and somewhat to the increase in the supply of gold which had the effect of advancing all prices, but the chief cause for the advance is in the increase in the price of farm products at the farm. So great

is this increase that the value of the average farm has now gone from $3,562 to $6,440, while the average value per acre has increased from $19.81 to $39.09. In addition to this, comfort of farm life has been so greatly added to in the last ten years by the rural free delivery, the suburban electric railway, the telephone and the automobile, that there is likely in the next ten years to be a halt in this change toward the city, and more people in proportion are likely to engage in gainful occupation on the farm than has heretofore been the case. Such an effect would be the natural result of the actual economic operation of the increase in the value of the farm product, and the increase in the certainty of farming profits. It is the business of the country, insofar as it can direct the matter, to furnish the means by which this economic force shall exert itself along the lines of easiest and best increase of production. Of course the Government by furnishing assistance in irrigation increases the amount of tillable land, and the states, if they undertake the drainage of swamp lands, will do the same thing. The cost of such improvements will be considerable, and will affect the farming profit, but the result generally in such cases is to yield such great crops per acre that the farmer can well afford to pay interest on the increased investment. Increased acreage from any other source is likely to be, however, in more stubborn land, calling for greater effort in tillage and producing less per acre. We may reasonably infer from the high prices of the decade immediately passed that everything was done by those who owned land to enlarge the acreage where that was easy or practical, and that what is yet to be brought in as tillable land presents greater difficulties and greater expense. The way in which the states can help to meet future increased demand is by investigation and research into the science of agriculture, and by giving to the farming community a knowledge which shall enable them better to develop the soil, and by educating those who are coming into the profession of farming. It is now almost a learned profession.

CONSERVATION OF THE SOIL.

The first great step that has to be taken in reformed agriculture is the conservation of the soil. Under our present system the loss to the farms in this country by the erosion of the soil is hardly to be calculated. Engineers have shown how much is carried down the great rivers of the country and is deposited as silt each year at their mouths. The number of cubic yards staggers the imagination. The question is how this can be prevented as it must be because the soil which is carried off by this erosion is generally the richest and the best soil of the farms which are thus denuded.

Of the rain or snow which falls on the land, a part evaporates into the air; a second part flows down the slopes to the streams and is called the run-off. The third part soaks into the soil and subsoil, and thence

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