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Vol. XX"Ho76k
WHAT SPILLMAN IS DOING.
The new agrostologist of the Department
of Agriculture, Prof. W. J. Spillman, for
merly with the experiment station of this
State and associate editor of The Ranch, has
a series of maps from Census Office figures
showing the distribution of hays, clovers
and green feeding stuffs over the United
States. Clover and timothy are found gen
erally in the East, and alfalfa in the West,
where also considerable barley and wheat
are cut for hay. The most striking figure
of the exhibit is the small amount of hay
of any kind produced throughout the entire
South. "A tremendous transformation must
come before the South will again become
agriculturally rich," said Prof. Spillman.
Cotton was once a profitable crop, but it
has come to the point now where farmers
are losing money on this crop, no replenish
ment of soil fertility is practiced, even the
cotton seed is shipped away, and they are
silling their farms with their crops. The
hope of the South lies in raising live stock
and growing more grasses and cow-peas.
The natural soil conditions throughout most
of the South are excellent, but the la,nd has
been worn to a thread. Compare Illinois
and Georgia. The census figures show that
on the regular Georgia farms, not the truck
farms alone, but on the field crops, commer
cial fertilizers are used in enormous quan
tities—to as great an. extent as in any State
and yet the general run of farmers are los
ing rather than making money. Illinois, on
the contrary, uses almost no commercial
fertilizer. She raises live stock and grows
grasses and clovers, and her land is growing
so rich that wheat breaks down."
I'rof. Spillman succeeds Lampson-Scrib
ner as agrostologist of the Department of
Agriculture, who was sent to the Philip
pines in charge of the government experi
ment station. Prof. Spillman comes from
Pullman, Wash., where he worked along
Government agricultural lines for some
eight years. Pullman is situated in what is
known as the Palouse country, the great
wheat section of Washington. The best
farmers of the Palouse, Prof. Spillman says,
average about forty bushels of wheat to the
acre without irrigation. In fact, this yield
is produced .with only twenty or twenty-two
inches of annual rainfall. Good crops of
wheat are raised on as little as twelve inch
es. Prof. Spillman himself raised 68.10
bushels per acre, land measured and wheat
weighed. The Palouse country, however,
lias an extremely fertile soil formed from
overflow lava beds. No soil, it is said, ex
ceeds in fertility disintegrated lava, and
A JOURNAL OF THE LAND AND THE HOME IN THE NEW WEST.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, APR. I, 1903.
there is practically no bottom to this soil.
In one place the Snake river has cut through
this lava 2.000 feet, forming a gorge hard!)
second to the grand canyon of the Colo
rado.
RURAL FREE MAIL DELIVERY.
The remarkable growth of the rural free
mail delivery system, and the willingness of
Congress to appropriate money for exten
sions faster than the extensions can be
made, have been surprising, even to the most
enthusiastic friends of the system. "Why,
the thing is spreading like wildfire," re
marked a gentleman who had been reading
Up on the subject. "At this rate, rural free
mail delivery will be universal in a few
years." At first glance, this view appears
to be correct, but in fact such a view is
merely superficial. It takes no great amount
of investigation to convince one that the
system must meet and overcome some very
great obstacles before it can even become
general, to say nothing of being universal.
So far, the system has sailed on smooth and
open seas with favorable winds. But now
it is rapidly approaching a region of rocks
and snags and storms.
Dropping the maritime figure and coming
back to terra firma, the great obstacle to
the general spread of the rural free delivery
system is the miserable roads of the coun
try. So far, the system has only been ex
tended to communities blessed with good
roads. Among the many communities de
manding the introduction of the system, the
Postoffice Department has been able to se
lect those which have good roads, either as
a result of favorable natural conditions or
superior wealth. The less favored com
munities which have been passed by have
consoled themselves with the thought that
their turn would come soon. But when
these disappointed communities—and their
number is increasing very rapidly—find out
that they are permanently barred from en
joying the benefits of free delivery on ac
count of the condition of their roads, a cry
of indignant opposition will be raised; and
it will grow into an angry roar, above which
it is doubtful if the friends of free delivery
can be heard. When this storm breaks, the
beneficiaries of the system will be found to
be a small minority and the disappointed a
large majority of the rural population. Sup
pose the minority stands on its dignity and
says: "What are you going to do about
it?" What's to prevent the disappointed
majority from wiping out the whole system
Subscription $1 Par Year
Worth Two Gold Dollars
and thus restoring "equality before the
law?" Or. suppose the minority says:
"Why don't you improve your roads, and
thus secure the blessings of free mail de
livery?" The majority can answer: "In
improving our roads, we have to overcome
greater obstacles, and our means are less.
Why not help us improve our roads through
general taxation?" Such a demand as this
is almost certain to result from the agita
tion for rural free delivery of the mails.
And what is there unreasonable or unjust
about such a demand? The general im
provement of the roads of the country is a
work too stupendous to be left entirely to
the small municipalities. Besides, is it not
more deserving of national aid than the
building of the railroads and canals and the
improvement of rivers and harbors?
A proper distribution of the expenses of
general road improvement among the Na
tion, the States, and the local communities
appears to be the only practical solution
of the road problem, and the road problem .
must be solved if rural free mail delivery is
to be made general.
IS THERE A HOLE IN YOUR MILK
PAIL?
A Holstein cow with a name in the Royal
Cow-Peerage book, has broken —so it is
said—the world's butter record. In thirty
days she gave 2,754.6 pounds of milk, con
taining 123.5 pounds of butter! Good for
Sadie! How this exploit does loom up in
comparison with that other cow —name of
Average—who gives 3,646 pounds of milk,
containing % \27 pounds of butter, in a year!
And then contemplate the depth of inade
quacy to which that still other cow—Name
less—descends who pulls down so many
fair Sadies to the Average class. It seems
strange that a dairyman who would not buy
a lame horse, nor tolerate for a minute a
milk pail with a hole in it, will keep on rais
ing, buying, feeding and milking year after
year cows of the Average families, to say
nothing of the Nameless. As virtue is its
own reward, so docs sin bring its inevitable
punishment.
The dairy fraternity of the United States
is- divided into two classes with Average
marking the dividing line. As you travel
up from the 127-pound mark you find intel
ligence, newspapers, happiness, leisure,
profit and Success with a capital S. Going
down from the middle line, you see cows
giving a, quart of milk a day, discourage
ment, drudgery and despair.
