THE NATION'S CAPITOL
PERCY spent three days in Washington.
"If I lived here long," he wrote his mother, "I think I should
become as optimistic as the Secretary of Agriculture, even though
the total produce of the original thirteen states should supply a
still smaller fraction of the necessities of life required by their
population. The Congressional Library is by far the finest structure
I have ever seen. I cannot help feeling proud that I am an American
when I walk through its halls and look upon the portraits of the
great men who helped to make our country truly great.
"As I shook hands with the President of the United States at one of
his public receptions held in the 'East Room' of the White House, I
wondered if there was another country on the earth where the
humblest subject could thus come face to face with the head of a
mighty nation. In the Treasury Building I was permitted to join a
small party of some distinction and shared with each of them the
privilege of holding in my hands for a moment eight million dollars
in government bonds.
"I have visited many of the great buildings, the Capitol, of course,
and Washington's monument, which rises to a height of 555 feet above
the surrounding land, or practically 600 feet above low-water level
in the Potomac. There are many smaller monuments erected in honor of
American heroes in various squares, circles, and parks throughout
the City.
"The zoological garden took a full half-day, and I could have spent
a much longer time there. They told me of a frightful occurrence
that happened only last week. In a pool of water a very large
alligator is kept confined by a low stout iron fence. A negro woman
was leaning over the fence holding her baby in her arms and looking
at the monster who seemed to be asleep; when, without a moment's
warning, he thrust himself half out of the water and snapped the
baby from her arms, swallowing it at one gulp as he settled back
into the water. I fear the report is true enough, for they have made
the fence higher in a very temporary manner, and I heard it
mentioned by a dozen or more.
"I leave Washington by boat at five o'clock this afternoon, and I
expect to land at Leonardtown, St. Mary county, Maryland, about six
o'clock in the morning, when the boat will be ready to leave that
port. It is a freight boat and stops for hours at large towns.
"I am planning for a trip into New England next week. I did not
realize how easy it is to go there until I looked up the train
service. In less than twelve hours' time, one can make the trip from
the Virginia line, through the District of Columbia, Maryland,
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode
Island, and into Massachusetts,--ten different states, including the
District. The trip from Galena to Cairo can hardly be made in so
short a time, not even on the limited Illinois Central trains."
An hour before leaving the Washington hotel Percy chanced to meet a
Congressman whom he had seen on several occasions at the University
and who had spoken at the alumni banquet at the time of Percy's
graduation.
"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 assistance 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 illustration 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 Washington, and we are told that barrels
of flour bearing his brand passed in the export markets without
inspection. History records that the plantations of Virginia usually
passed 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 spacious 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 worship. 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 substituting 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 God 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 God'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 God 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."