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tlon from Japan h;iF not yet itccn
lenmcd. and when I ■resident Booko
v *‘lt foils to Koi- it., d demands only
nior«- battle ships. : the lesson of the
irrt'iit sea tijrtii wi . M bus just ln-<*n
fought, he unfortiitiaii-ly diverts the
minds of the people of ties country
from facts of supreme : ud overshnd
f> "ing importance, whlcn should he
hiirned into the j»uI>Ji<• mind s l*y a
stroke of lightning from every victory
won by the Japane
That lesson Is tie profoundly Im¬
portant fact that th" Japanese man,
the unit of iter mite ’ al strength, is
the product of a mod of lif. and sin
environment which continues the
physical strength w) - comes only
fro in the rural life-1 an living next
to nature with the mental activity
and keenness which come from con¬
stant contact with his fcllowmen- ttie
community life.
A Nation of Gardeners,
The Japanese are not a nation of
farmers, a we tinder ami the word.
They are a nation of gardeners.
r i here is neither isolation nor eongtse
tion in I heir life. They dwell, the
great majority of them", tint in great
cities, tint in closely settled rural com¬
munities d'tie ranch and 1he tene¬
ment are alike foreign to the life of
the Japanese.
The great principle that mu--(control
our own national developin' it le-ncc
forth 1« that the land shall lie subdi¬
vided into tile stria Heat tracts from
w hich one mail's labor will uisiain u
fund, family boy In comfort, girl, in the and public that every
or schools
should in* so trained tm ||n -a* schools
that It will know how To til] such a
tract of land for a livelihood.
In other words. let us reproduce In
this country the Conditions so well
described in an article from tin* Book
lovers' Magazine for An rust. 1904,
from which we quote the following:—
“While Japan !« ciinuouaduigHsway
to rank with Christian
AUSTIN*
i THK MIDDLE WEST.
Tlic blurk square tn t ho above map roprosent* the total area of cultivated land in Japan, supporting thirty millions of agricultural people.
first-class fighting nation, it is no1 nog
lccling its fields of rice, gouge, millet
and mu.it. Us groves of mulberry and
bamboo, its priceless plots of tea and
mitsunvifa shrubs, ud its multi-mil¬
lion garth * of ticries, v notables,
fruits and flower-', i m tUrn aiuls of
patriots that have marched to the
front have not thinned tliq ranks of
the mightier hosts tilling/ gathering the soil.
Thin? million farmers diminutive are fields
ample harvests in the
of Japan.
Husbandry Dignified*
“For twenty five centuries the Fun
rise sovereigns have dignified hus¬
bandry as the most Irfrj* riant and
most honorable industrial calling in
the empire, and now move than sixty
per cent of the Mikado’s subjects till
with iftcouiparalilc skill the limited
soil of tils islands
■• rite same diligent genius that ena¬
bles a landscape gardener in Japan to
compass within n low square yards of
land a forest, a bridge-spanned stream,
a water fall ami lake, a chain of ter¬
raced hills, gardens and chrysanthe¬
mums. hyacinths, peonies and dwarfed pinks, n
beetling crag crowned with the a dainty
i aifer, and through nil
park meandering paths, with here a
shrine and there a dainty summer
house, lias made It possible for the far¬
mers of tile empire to build up on less
than nineteen thousand square miles
f arable !. ; <I the most remarkable
agricultural nation the world has
known If nil ttie tillable acres of
Japan were merged Into one field, a
man in an automobile, traveling at tlie
rare of fifty miles an hour, could skirt
tlie entire perimeter of arable Japan
In eleven hours. Upon this narrow
freehold Japan has reared a nation of
impend power, which Is determined
to enjoy commercial preeminence over
all the world ef wealth and oppertu
i:it> from Siberia to Siam and already,
by tlie force of arms, is driving from
the shores of Asia the greatest mon¬
archy of Europe.
Hoots in the Soil.
The secret of the success of the lit¬
tle Daybreak Kingdom has l«*en a
mystery to many students of nations.
Patriotism does not explain the riddle
ef it: strength, neither can commerce,
nor military equipment, nor mam 1 -
factoring skill. Western nations will
fail fully to grasp the secret of the
dynamic intensity of J a pan today, and
will dangerously underestimate the
fori ida i»le po.-.-ibilith of tin- Greater
Japan- the Itai Nippmi-of
i.gncuitiiral V"f .mmphs ,H T of -r y that ' n ; empire. y F‘ e
lor Japan, more scientifically than
any Other nation pad or present, has
perfected lie art of sending the
of its titilizatiou euduriiigly into the
soil.
“1‘rogrc -ive expert - of high author¬
ity throughout ttie Occident now ad¬
mit that in all the annals of agri¬
culture there is nothing mat ever ap¬
proached the scientific -kill of Sunrise
husbandry. Patient diligence, with
knowledge of the chemistry of soil and
the physiology of plants, have yielded
results that have astounded the most
advanced agriculturists in Western
nations.”
The Safe Foundation.
The creation of the conditions above
described under which the people of a
nation are rooted to the soil in homes
of their own on the land, is not only
good states mulish Ip and the highest
patriotism, but it is the only safe foun¬
dation for an enduring national
structure.
To Ignore and neglect this founda¬
tion while we build battleships, equip
armies and annex islands and dig
Isthmian canals, is a - fatal a mistake
as it would be to build a twenty-story
skyscraper foundation in Chicago without any
hut the mud of Lake.
Michigan.
We need not muster out our armies,
tior dismantle our battleships nor
evacuate the Philippines, nor stop
work on the Isthmian Canal, but the
fact remit ins, as ch ar as t he huh from
an unclouded sky at noonday, flint the
attention of our people as a nation is
riveted on our naval and military af¬
fairs - rues of foreign cxploitn-
♦ ion, to the disregard and neglect of
th<> vastly more important problem of
building men at home, and creating a
citizenship which will be un enduring
national foundation forever, and en¬
larging our home markets, which will
bo unaffected by any foreign complica¬
tions or tvtde disturbances.
The attention of our people of late
has been so much absorbed by the
problems of our export trade, that we
overlook the fact that the United
States today manufactures annually a
product aggregating in total value the
combined manufactured product of
the throe other greatest manufactur¬
ing nations of the world. England,
Franco and Germany, and we con¬
sume ninety-two por cent of our entire
annually home. manufactured products at
Create Farm Homes.
And if every farm in the United
States were cut In two. and n now
home created on it so that the number
of farm homes, and the capital in¬
vested in, and labor devoted to agri¬
culture throughout the entire United
States, were tints doubled, the result
would he an enlargement of our popu
buion, our home market for manu
faoturos. and onr power ns a nation,
tiltnost beyond the power of the iutag
Ination to picture to the mind.
It is to the development of its vast
agricultural resources and the creation
of a closely and 1 settled population of
tuors gardeners, ’ who w ~ will
vnto the seil by the most intensive
methods, that tho Middle West must
look if it is to achieve its full destiny
iti wealth, power and population.
The resources of tin* great territory
extending westward from the crest of
the Alleghany Mountains to the one
hundredth meridian—the edge of the
arid region- and from the sources of
the Mississippi Kiver on the north to
its outlet to the Gulf on the south, are
so largely agricultural that it offers
the ideal section of the earth for the
development of a nation along the
lines of Japanese development, with
a preponderating rural population.
There is no other section of tlie
world's surface where latent agrieul
♦ oral resources of such inexhaustible
richness aud extent lie practically uu
developed
for. in fact, they are
We have, as yet. hardly more
tickled the earth over this
area,
Our Own Country.
^ compare Japan, with
dense .'its population, n- wealth, its
trad.- and commerce,
natjoIlilI strength, with any section
our owu country .J equal ,.,\ to it in
j Datura , n ur W e are
at th( , great j.....ibilities of future
velopment in our own country.
Tin- entire population of Japan
about forty-five million, of
thirty million is a farming
and this vast population of thirty
ion farmers anil their families is
tained on nineteen thousand
miles of irrigated land. There is
agriculture In Japan but
agriculture. They have learned
water is the greatest fertilizer
to nature, and save and utilize it
the same care that they use
other available process for the
zation of their fields.
Nineteen thousand square miles
an !irc;i about one hundred and
iive miles square, and in a square in
corner of tin* State of Illinois, the
parative size of which to the rest
tlic State is shown on the accompany¬
ing map, is sustained a nation which
to the amazement of all other
on the earth, has sprung to the
as one of the great world powers.
Source of Pi wer.
And the Home Acre farms or gar¬
dens the rural homes of Japan—are
(lie source of that national power.
♦ he Commenting on tills, the author of
article in the August 1004 Book—
lovers’ Magazine, quoted from above,
says in that article:—
“Prom what its advanced agricult¬
ure lias made its plains to yrnld. Japan
has fed and clothed anil educated its
multiplying taasscs, fast nearing the
fifty million figure; it has stacked up
golil in its treasury t lias created captureda a
great merchant marine,has
growing share of European commerce,
has already outmarslmled commercial
America on the 1‘acifie, has crowded
its cities with roaring factories, and
lias given costly and triumphant equip¬
ment to it*, aggressive fleets and regi¬
ments. Ami it has accomplished all
tliis out of the profit of harvests
gleaned from a farm area scarcely
large enough to afford storage room
for tho agricultural machinery in use
in the United States.”
Could there lx> a more striking proof
of the oft-quoted words of David Starr
Jordan, that:—
"Stability of national character goes
with firmness of foot-liold on the
soil.”
Comparison of Areas.
Now compare Japan and its devel¬
opment with tho possibilities of devel¬
opment in tlie Middle West.
The area of all the islands compris¬
ing the Empire of Japan is 147,65b
square miles; of this only 10.000
square miles is available for agricult¬
ure, for every available acre in that
country Is cultivated,
The total combined area of Wiscon
sin. Illinois ami Indiana is 140.300
square miles, and it is safe to say that
considerably more than half of this
area probably more than two thirds—
is capable of as close a cultivation,
and of sustaining as dense a poptila
tion per square mile ns the cultivated
area of Japan.
The water with which to Irrigate it
I now runs to waste. Tin* water" which
Chicago- turns into her drainage canal,
i instead of producing agricult--r.il
wealth by irrigating tlie lands of Illi¬
nois. produces law suits with St. Louis
because it nuts to waste past that
City to the Gulf of Mexico.
T!n> time will Co me when irrigated
agriculture in the Middle West will
absorb every drop of water falling
within that territory.
And when the irrigation canals and
the Irrigated farms of the Middle
West xvill dry up the Ohio and the
Mississippi rivers, just as irrigation
iu the West has dried up Tulare Lake
in California, and Is rapidly drying up
the Great Salt hake in "Utah, the
of the Mississippi and its tribu
wili be led out through a net
of canals, large and small, and
in reservoirs, and every drop
d to beneficial use, a use that
so valuable that its value for
aavigltiou will count for nothing in
comparison, it may be a great many
years before this will happen, but it
is eetlain to come. In no other way
this •an the, vast population with which
country will teein within a few
hundivd years be provided with the
food to sustain it.
Ja, an, from her total area of 147,-
655 ptare miles, of which only 19.000
are cultivated, collected an annual
revet tie before the war with Russia
began of $121,438,725, and her exports
amounted to $124,208,923.
Tin a i-rage population per square
mile of Japan is 299.76, but only one
seventh of her territory is actually
under cultivation.
A Thousand Miles Square.
A section of our own country con¬
tained v. :tliin a square extending one
thousand miles north from New Or¬
leans and one thousand miles west
from i'ittsburg, and containing one
million square miles, if as densely
populated as Japan, would sustain a
popnhi ion of 800,000,000; but a much
largi r proportion of this great square
in the center of the United States
could lie Intensely farmed than in
Japan, where only one-seventh of the
total ari a is cultivated.
On the 19,000 square miles of land
in Japan that is actually farmed, they
sustain 30,000,000 farmers. It is a
w.fo (■ timate that at least one-half of
the thousand mile square central sec¬
tion ef file United States above des
cribed could be as closely cultivated
the productive fields *
as of Japan.
Those Japanese fields sustain over
fifteen hundred people to tlic square
mil.- n t tie same ratio of population,
ot r 4y. thousand mile square central
seci v, would sustain 750,000,000 of
farming >pu!atiotL alone.
A Pop1 1 ilion of over fifteen hundred
to ?!:.• square mile sustained by agri¬
culture seems to the ordinary mind in
on tlic Island of Jersey,
olr the English coast, a population of
o\ (?r t h i run 1 u iUindrod to iup sonaro
mile is sustained by out of door agri¬
culture ui a climate by no means best
adapted to Intensive farming.
It must be borne in mind that we are
talking future now of the possibilities of
figures development, and the facts and
above given will no doubt Tie
looked upon as utterly chimerical bv
the reader.
Degeneracy i ; England.
Bear in mind however, again, that
they arc based only upon the assump¬
tion that we in this country should at¬
tain to a point of development already
reached by the Japanese people, anil
on which rests their national strength.
It is true that our development dur¬
ing the last baif-century lias not been
towards the laud. We have followed
m tlie footsteps of England, ratiier
than Japan; and while, in fifty years
Japan has restored the land to her
people and rooted them to the soil iu
homes of their own, England has
done the contrary. She has driven
her yeomanry from the farms to the
cities, whore they have become fac¬
tory operatives, and degenerated
physically and mentally to such a de¬
gree that the degeneracy of her citi¬
zenship now presents itself to tlie
statesmen of England as a most ap¬
palling Wo problem. ,
are not, doing the same thing, but
we are as yet, feeling the effects
of it so severely because we have still
a larger proportion of our people on
the land.
Back to the Land.
We have much to do to reverse the
tide of population, and turn it from
the cities back to the land—from the
tenement to tlie garden. It must not
bo imagined that it is necessary, iu
order to accomplish this, that tlie
workers in our cities or in our fac¬
tories should quit their present em¬
ployment and become farmers. All
that is necessary is that the facilities
for rapid transportation afforded by
our of trolley system should be availed
to plant every factory family upon
at least an acre of land.
Let that be done, and the problem
is practically solved no matter
though tlie acre he used for nothing
but to raise chickens and keep a goat.
The children of the family will have
fresh air and sunshine and pure milk,
and will grow up to be healthy men
and women.
The lever with which we must
move our population back to the land
must be the public school system.
Gardens and Handicraft.
Every child in the public schools,
boy or girl, must he trained from its
earliest days of school life to culti¬
vate the ground and make tilings
grow in a garden, and to raise poul¬
try, ami do all that needs to ho done
to provide the food for a family from
an ; ere of land.
A “id to this a training in simple
sloytl work and home handicraft,
cooking for and sewing and making things
the home and you wo. have cre¬
ated the Impulse in the minds of the
multiplying millions of our children
which will lead them to slum the
bricks and the asphalt, the slums and
the tenements, as they would shun
the plague, and flee from them far
enough Into the country to have an
acre at least for a home and a gar¬
den.
Create this Impulse In the minds of
our children, the millions upon mil¬
lions of them who are attending, and
will attend, our public schools, and
they will find a way to solve all the
rest of the problem, how to get the
land, and how to get back and forth
to it, if they continue to work in the
city or the factory.
Feme will say that school gardens
cannot be provided for city children
That is a mistake. The otilv ditti-
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culty in the way of it is a mere cus¬
tom or habit, easily modified.
The terms of school of all city
schools should be changed. There
should lie a short winter term, dur¬
ing which the time should be given to
instruction from the books and in
handicraft within doors.
Then* should lie a summer term of
equal length during which the schools
would be transferred to the suburbs,
and work in summer school gardens.
The children should be taken back
and forth to these summer school gar
dens at public expense, as they are
now taken to and from the consoli¬
dated rural schools on the trolley
lines in some of the New England
states,
The vacation, which would not need
lie so long, should lie divided betwen a
; spring vacation and a fall vacation.
intervening between the winter city
erm and tlie country summer term ot
each school.
Building a Strong Citizenship.
Of course, many will hold up their
hands and say this is impossible.
England finds it Impossible, as the
result of her system of great landed
estates, to provide her people with
homes on the land, and ‘ in conse¬
quence her ruin as a nation is only a
question of a comparatively brief
time.
Japan, on the contrary, put forth
her hand and solved tlie very problem
which, to England, seems impossible,
and behold the results in her strength
and power as a nation.
It is only a question with us, as a
people, whether we will follow the
lead of Japan, and profit by her les¬
sons, or follow the lead of England
and share in her eventual ruin.
The influences which are destroying
England are at work steadilv and in¬
sidiously will in this nation, and though
it take longer for them to work
our ruin, it is sure to come if we do
not, find a way to root the great
majority of our people to tlic land in
homes of their own, as Japan has
done, and as wo can do, unless we
are as blind and as impotent in deal
mg with our national problems as
seems to he the fate of England
In the carrying out of this great
patriotic purpose of building a strong
citizenship by building rural homes
on the land, wo are. at the same
tunc, doing that which will create
the greatest possible commercial
prosperity, est attainable and develop to the high¬
point, not onlv the re
sources of the Middle West, but of
our entire country.
The Olive In America.
The annual output of olive oil in
California is about 150,000 gallons; of
pickles 230,000 gallons. The imports
to the country of oil amount to about
1,250,000 gallons per year and of
pickles to 2,116 gallons. The olive was
introduced into California 135 years
ago, which is a bad showing for use
of native olive oil, especially when
it is acknowledged to be the superior
of all foreign oils.
EXCAVATION WORK.
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use the
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Published August 1st
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