George Stewart

Document Type

Full Issue

Publication Date

12-1916

Abstract

Due to the use of poor seed, the farmers of Utah lose yearly many thousands of dollars. Often single farms suffer to the extent of several hundred dollars. The most regretable and yet the most hopeful thing about the seed situation is that these losses are largely preventable.

Abundant area of unoccupied public lands have hitherto been within the reach of practically any wide-awake tiller of the soil. The farmer was more nearly sure of larger hay tacks and more bushels of grain or potatoes if he doubled the size of his fields than if he attempted more thorough cultivation. These conditions are now, however, largely outgrown. A new West looms on the horizon, West of keen competition and of high-priced land. Tracts that were sold for a few dollars a generation ago, now change hands at anywhere from fifty to five hundred dollars an acre. With such valuable lands under cultivation, acre-yields must grow apace or the harvest cannot pay interest and taxes on the farm, much less compensate for labor and equipment. Better farming must be practiced. Improved tillage can do much but not all; better crops are necessary. These may be different crops, such as sugar-beets on land formerly used for grain only, or they may be superior strains of crops already in use.

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