SUPPLEMENTARY PROCEEDINGS (continued 2)

The weeder is better adapted for harrowing wheat and other small grains than the common harrow, but the harrow may be used when the ground is firm. I question whether it is necessary or advisable as a rule to harrow wheat if due precautions have been taken in preparing the seed-bed.

Under certain conditions, where heavy rains firm and puddle the soil, it may be advisable to harrow, but very young grain may be injured by harrowing, and after the wheat covers the ground, harrowing is unnecessary. The harrowing of wheat at regular intervals at the Kansas, Nebraska and Montana Experiment Stations has not resulted favorably. Without question, the proper preparation of seed-bed is a much more important factor in the growing of small grains, than the cultivation after seeding.

While it is a disputed point among authorities whether it pays to harrow wheat and other sowed crops, there is no difference of opinion regarding the necessity or value of frequent cultivation of corn and of all other crops usually planted in rows. Regarding the depth and frequency of cultivation desirable, I favor rather deep cultivation in our drier, hotter climate, and after every hard rain, if possible, or at least sufficient to keep the weeds in check.

It is not necessary or practicable to attempt to cultivate after every rain and there is no virtue in the admonition “Keep the Cultivator going in a dry time.” If the soil has been well stirred and the mulch is of sufficient depth, to cultivate again would be loss of time and might do actual harm by drying out the deeper portions of the soil mulch and also causing a too fine and dusty condition of the surface soil, unfavorable to the absorption of moisture when the rain comes.

It is not necessary to have extra machinery in order to successfully practice the system of culture outlined above. The only implements required or recommended which are not in general use on every well equipped farm, are the subsurface packer and the weeder.

The principles stated above have been known and practiced more or less for a long time and are mostly included in the “Campbell” system of culture. H. W. Campbell was among the early apostles of dry farming in the West, and has perhaps done more to call the attention of western farmers to the necessity and advantages of thorough cultivation of the soil than any other investigator.

Scientific farming pays, everywhere. I believe in the practicability of thorough tillage and good cultivation on every farm, and the increase in crops by such farming will more than pay for the extra labor. But the great problem in Western agriculture today is not how to get larger crops out of the soil for a few years, but rather how to produce paying crops every year and at the same time maintain the fertility and productiveness of the land.

Simple tillage will not maintain soil fertility. It becomes necessary finally to replace the plant food, exhausted by the continuous growing of crops, with the application of manure, or chemical fertilizers, and by green manuring and the rotation of crops, in which the legume crops, such as alfalfa and clover are introduced in order to restore again the nitrogen and organic matter, the supply of which has only become more rapidly reduced because of intensive cultivation.

There is little question regarding the value and even the necessity of the summer fallow in the drier areas of the West. The tests at a number of Western stations and the general experience of farmers prove this; yet there are serious objections to the continued practice of bare summer fallowing.

First, there is the tendency for the soil to waste by drifting in strong winds and by washing away in heavy rains.

Second, summer fallowing with frequent cultivation hastens nitrification and decay, thus more rapidly exhausting the organic matter in the soil.

It is possible for the soil to become more rapidly exhausted in fertility by alternate bare summer fallowing and cropping than by continuous cropping. At least the bare summer fallow does not add any fertility to the soil. In order to maintain the productivity of our Western lands, it will become necessary to add fertility to the soil preferably during the year of fallowing.

I am beginning the practice of a method of green manuring and partial summer fallowing, which I believe to be superior to bare summer fallowing and which will largely overcome the objections to summer fallowing.

The plan is to plant some fall crop or early spring crop and plow it under late in May or early in June, practicing a summer fallow with surface cultivation for the rest of the season, until seeding time.

Certain crops adapted to the West are being tested for this purpose with some degree of success. The more promising are sweet clover and sand vetch for fall seeding and field peas for early spring seeding. These crops are hardy, rapid growers, and somewhat drouth resistant and may be used also in part for pasture, thus giving some return other than their fertilizing value. Some experiments have already been made at the Hays Station in Western Kansas and the yields of wheat secured from the green-manuring summer fallow compare favorably with the yields from the bare summer fallow. And in my judgment, this method of fallowing will soon be generally adopted and will solve the problem for a long time at least, of increasing the organic matter and maintaining the productiveness of our western lands.

This method of green manuring and rotation of crops will largely prevent soil drifting, the control of which is a very serious problem in western agriculture. Our experience at the Station at Hays has demonstrated also that large areas in wheat may be protected and largely prevented from being injured by the drifting of soil within the field itself. The spreading of straw or coarse manure and packing the straw into the soil with the subsurface packer was the most effective means employed for protecting the fields from injury by winds last spring (1911). The subsurface packing alone helped to prevent the starting of the drifting soil within the field, but was not very effective in preventing the soil from adjacent fields from sweeping over the wheat field, but the straw covered area actually stopped the drifting soil, causing it to lodge, and thus protected the field beyond the straw barrier.

It is quite as necessary, however, to prevent the drifting of adjacent fields, as to protect the wheat field itself. This may be done by early listing or disking of the fall plowed fields and corn or kaffir stubble fields which are almost sure to drift in a violent wind, when the soil is very dry at the surface. Disking or other surface cultivation will prevent drifting of soil for a time, until the looser portion dries out, then the soil can only be held by deeper cultivation as by listing or plowing. For putting the surface in the best condition to resist wind force a long time, I prefer to break the ground with a lister, forming deeper furrows and higher ridges than may be prepared with the disk or cultivator.

During the season of 1911, which has been extremely dry and hot, the wheat on summer fallow at the Station at Hays made a larger growth and a much better showing in the early part of the season than other wheat, but before the crop matured the conditions of drouth and heat became so severe that the wheat was greatly injured, and the summer fallow produced a little larger yield but a poorer quality of grain than was secured from other land not summer fallowed.

The yields compare approximately as follows: Summer fallowed, five bushels per acre. Not summer fallowed, two bushels per acre. In other localities in Western Kansas where the rain was greater and the condition less severe, the summer fallow made a better showing.

It was also true last season, at the Western Kansas Station, that the extra cultivation in preparing the seed-bed was without beneficial effect, in producing a larger yield of wheat. However, in ordinary seasons the reverse has usually been true; summer fallow has given much larger yields than continuous cropping, and early plowing and extra cultivation have usually given a marked increase in yield in the comparative tests which have been carried on at the Experiment Stations, both at Manhattan in Eastern Kansas and also at Hays in the western third of the state. At the Manhattan Station the careful preparation of the seed-bed was very effective in increasing the yield of wheat in 1911, even doubling and trebling the crop. The results of much of this work are summarized in the succeeding pages.

Three general methods of tillage for preparing the land for winter wheat are practiced in this state, namely: plowing, listing and disking. There may be variations of these three methods; as early plowing, shallow plowing, deep plowing, single listing, double listing, disking without plowing, disking before plowing, little cultivation after plowing, frequent cultivation after plowing, etc., and local conditions may determine which method is the best. That certain methods are superior to others may be readily shown by comparative trials which have been carried on at the Kansas Station during the past two years. These experiments include the several general methods of tillage named above with variations as described in Table I, which gives the yield of wheat per acre and other data determined by those experiments. This work was done at the State Experiment Station at Manhattan, located in the middle eastern part of the state.

TABLE I.—METHODS OF PREPARING SEED-BED FOR WHEAT.⁠[7]⁠

Methods of Preparation. Yield per Acre, Bushels. Data for 1919-11 Crop Only.

1907-1908. 1908-1909. 1910-1911. Average for Three Years. Cost per Acre for Preparation. Value of Crop at $0.80 per bu. Value of Crop Less Cost of Preparation.

Plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep 34.74 40.12 27.74 34.20 $3.90 $22.19 $18.29

Plowed July 15, 7 inches deep 28.84 35.02 38.36 34.07 4.95 30.69 25.74

Plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep; not worked until Sept. 15 30.53 38.12 23.62 30.76 3.55 18.89 15.34

Listed July 15, 7 inches deep; ridges split Aug. 15 28.67 31.33 34.35 29.78 3.75 27.48 23.73

Listed July 15, 7 inches deep; ridges harrowed 20.02 32.17 35.07 29.09 3.70 28.05 24.35

Plowed July 15, 3 inches deep — — 33.45 — 4.45 26.77 22.32

Disked July 15, plowed Aug. 15, 7 inches deep — — 32.68 — 4.70 26.14 21.44

Disked July 15, plowed Sept. 15, 7 inches deep 20.11 30.56 23.57 24.75 4.35 18.85 14.50

Plowed Sept. 15, 3 inches deep 21.19 30.76 14.46 22.14 3.05 11.57 8.52

Plowed Sept. 15, 7 inches deep 19.59 27.98 15.79 21.12 3.55 12.63 9.08

Disked at intervals until seeding; not plowed 14.95 28.24 4.29⁠[8]⁠ 15.83 1.95 3.42 1.47

Much of it was done by myself or under my direction during eight years of service as agronomist at that station.

Observe that the largest yields have been secured, as an average for the three years from July and August plowing seven inches deep. The July listing has ranked next to early plowing, but yielding on the average nearly five bushels less wheat per acre than early plowing, or a decrease in yield of 14 per cent. The decrease in yield from listing was less in the dry year of 1910-11.

All of the higher yielding plots were cultivated at intervals after plowing or listing with the harrow, disk or Acme. Thus the weeds were destroyed, the soil was well pulverized and well settled and put into excellent seed-bed condition by the first of October, when the wheat was planted.

One or two cultivations after August plowing, at an extra cost of thirty-five cents to fifty cents per acre, has given an average increase in the yield of wheat of three and a half bushels per acre. Land disked before plowing, July 15, and plowed August 15, 1910, gave an increase in yield of five bushels per acre in 1911.

Deep plowing in July, 1910, gave nearly five bushels more wheat per acre in 1911 than shallow plowing. As an average for the several seasons, the September shallow plowing has given a little larger yield than the deeper plowing.

The beneficial effect of early plowing and of frequent cultivation after plowing in preparing the seed-bed for fall wheat was most marked in the dry season of 1910-11, when plowing a month later each time decreased the yield at the rate of ten and one-half to twelve bushels per acre.

The preparation with the lister has proved to be a little less effective than early plowing, but has given better results than early disking followed by plowing a month later. Filling the furrows by harrowing, versus splitting the lister ridges and leveling with the harrow have given about equal results. The second listing is not necessary and makes the preparation somewhat more expensive. Preparing the seed-bed by listing and harrowing is cheaper than early plowing and frequent cultivation. The largest yield and largest net income, however, has been secured from early plowing followed by sufficient cultivation to kill weeds and maintain a mellow soil mulch.

Preparing the seed-bed by disking has given the lowest yields and least income. The disked land has produced on the average each year eighteen bushels less wheat per acre than early plowing. That is, the well prepared seed-bed has given 114 per cent the greater yield, or more than double the yield of the poorly prepared seed-bed, and at very little greater cost of preparation.

The next lowest yield was produced by late plowing, a week or two before the wheat was planted. The average decrease in yield from September plowing compared with July plowing was over twelve bushels per acre per annum, or early plowing increased the yield fifty-four per cent. In the drier seasons of 1910-11 the difference was greater, the early plowing producing more than double the yield received from the late plowing.

“Disking in” wheat in the dry season resulted in an almost complete crop failure, giving a small yield of only four bushels per acre; compared with thirty-eight bushels per acre produced by deep early plowing. This is certainly a marked example of the value of “proper” cultivation in preparing the seed-bed for wheat.

The seed-bed for corn should be deeper and more mellow than the seed-bed for wheat, and the early cultivation of the corn land previous to planting may cause a marked increase in yield, as shown by experiments which have been recently completed at the Kansas Station. These experiments relate to different methods of tillage which may be practiced during the winter or early spring in preparing the seed-bed for corn, and include deep and shallow plowing, double disking, and listing, namely, plowing land into ridges with a double mold-board plow or lister.

In these experiments corn has usually been planted in listed furrows, except that the surface and lister methods of planting have been compared each year on the plowed plots. Table II gives the yield of shelled corn per acre secured by the continued practice of the methods described, for a period of six years. The average yield for three years (1906-08) and for six years (1903-08) is also given.

TABLE II.—PREPARATION OF SEED-BED FOR CORN.

Early Treatment. Method of Planting. Yield Per Acre in Bushels. Average 3 Years 1906-1908 Average 6 Years 1903-1908

1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908

Disked twice Listed 68.61 55.12 34.74 70.29 41.30 73.60 61.73 57.28

Disked twice, harrowed Listed 65.18 50.27 41.48 75.34 44.38 78.80 66.17 59.24

Listed Listed in old furrows — — 44.00 80.10 49.81 70.40 66.77 —

Listed Listed breaking ridges 74.28 52.37 40.40 82.29 45.31 74.00 67.20 61.44

Untreated Listed 64.14 58.35 38.17 68.61 40.87 72.40 60.63 57.09

Plowed shallow Listed 64.26 54.96 40.82 84.23 55.48 76.90 72.20 62.28

Average of listed 66.69 54.21 39.94 76.81 46.19 74.35 65.78 59.47

Plowed shallow Surface planted — — 42.40 71.90 46.87 68.40 62.39 —

Plowed deep 73.74 70.95 41.66 81.89 51.28 75.40 69.46 65.79

Av. of surface planted 73.74 70.95 42.03 76.80 49.08 71.90 65.93 65.79

While the relative yields vary somewhat from year to year, it is very clear that the early plowing and early listing have given increased yields of corn, ranging from six to twelve bushels per acre for the three years, and four to five bushels per acre as an average for six years.

As an average for three years the double disking and harrowing early in the spring has given an increased yield of five and one-half bushels of corn per acre. It will be observed that in the above comparison all of the corn was planted in listed furrows.

Comparing the two methods of planting it appears that the highest yield for three years was produced by listing in the early shallow plowed land: The average yield for six years, however, was 3.3 bushels per acre in favor of the surface method of planting.

The results may be explained by the fact that the seasons of 1904 and 1905 were very wet, hence there was less necessity of conserving soil moisture, and the early cultivation gave little benefit, while the lister method of planting was placed at a disadvantage. The method of planting corn in listed furrows is adapted to dry climate and warm soil. Corn planted in the bottom of a furrow four to six inches deep develops a deeper root system than surface planted corn; hence listed corn is not readily injured by drouth. The effect on the root system is shown by the study of corn roots made at the Station.⁠[9]⁠

It is quite evident that the best method of preparing the seed-bed for corn and the best method of planting corn will vary for different climatic and soil conditions. Yet it is very important that the farmer test these methods and determine which is the better for his particular conditions, since the method of seed-bed preparation and the method of planting may be very important factors in securing large yields.

In the cultivation experiments carried on at the Station during the past six years the practice has been to “lay the corn by” with a final cultivation about the first of July. In these experiments the plan has been to cultivate duplicate plots by four different methods, as follows: shallow; deep; deep early and shallow late; shallow early and deep late. The shallow cultivation has been performed with the knife or gopher type of cultivator, while for the deep cultivation, the six-shovel cultivator has been used.

The plan has been not to cultivate excessively deep but only medium deep, three to four inches. The depth of the surface cultivation has averaged one and one-half to two inches. The corn has usually been cultivated four times each season, and the practice has been to cultivate by the same method twice in succession those plots in which the method of cultivation was changed during the season, that is, certain plots were cultivated shallow at the first two cultivations and deep at the last two cultivations, and vice versa. The yield of shelled corn each year and the average yield for seven years, by the different methods of cultivation, are given in Table III.

TABLE III.—CULTIVATION EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN, 1903-1909.

Method of Cultivating. Yield of Corn Per Acre, Bushels. Average 3 years, 1907-1909 Average 7 years, 1903-1909

1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909

Shallow, 1 to 2 inches 51.65 57.51 45.64 56.19 41.21 75.72 35.1 50.69 51.86

Shallow, early; deep, late 52.96 57.25 49.68 51.67 42.17 87.12 34.7 54.66 53.56

Deep, 3 to 4 inches 50.87 53.98 50.86 50.55 38.73 78.81 33.7 56.41 51.07

Deep, early; shallow, late 53.66 49.62 49.39 50.09 43.11 76.93 31.3 50.45 50.30

Wrong time — — — — — 79.7 44.1 61.9

Right time — — — — — 82.9 51.2 67.0

The average yield for the seven years favors the shallow-early-deep-late cultivation by a little over three bushels per acre per year, when compared with the deep-early-shallow-late cultivation, which gave the lowest average yield.

The variation in yield by the different methods of cultivation from year to year and the nearly uniform average yields for the long period of seven years, indicate that the method of cultivation practiced, whether shallow or deep, may not make much difference in the yield of the crop, provided the cultivation is done well and at the right time.

The factors heretofore described, which have to do with seed germination and plant growth, are largely controlled by cultivation. There are, perhaps, no exact rules or methods for cultivating corn, but a farmer observing the crop and soil conditions, and understanding the principles of soil cultivation, may vary the manner and practice of cultivation somewhat to suit the conditions and accomplish the objects desired.

It is very important to cultivate corn at the “right” time. An experiment which has been carried on for two years in cultivating corn at the “right” time and the “wrong” time, has resulted as follows:

Average yield for “wrong” time cultivation, 61.9 bushels per acre. Average yield for “right” time cultivation, sixty-seven bushels per acre, or six and one-tenth bushels per acre in favor of cultivating the corn at the “right” time. The “right” time means soon after the rain, when the weeds have started and the soil is just dry enough to cultivate well; the wrong time is a week or ten days later, when the weeds have become larger and the soil is hard and dry and turns over in clods and lumps. It costs more to cultivate corn at the “wrong” time than at the “right” time, because of the slower and more difficult work and greater draft of the cultivator due to unfavorable soil conditions—and yet the “right” time cultivation increased the yield 10 per cent.

It is important also to use the best implements, but doing the work well and at the right time is even more important than the type of cultivator used. No one type of cultivator can be recommended as superior to others, but different kinds of cultivators are useful for different work and for different conditions. The corn grower should have more than one kind of corn cultivator. I prefer at least two types, one for shallow and one for deep cultivation. The knife and shovel cultivators serve their purpose well, but the disk cultivator may be used in place of shovels, and is especially recommended for use during the early cultivation of listed corn.

It is possible, as shown by the work at the Station, for the wheat farmer who will practice the best culture methods, to increase his yield of winter wheat 50 to 100 per cent by careful and proper preparation of the seed-bed, with practically no greater cost for cultivation (See Table I.).

The skillful corn grower may readily increase his corn yields five bushels per acre by a little extra cultivation of the corn land early in the spring before planting. He may add another five bushels to the crop by practicing the correct method of planting, which experience has proved to be the most suitable to his soil and climate. And finally, by the simple factor of sufficient cultivation of corn at the right time and in the right way he may still further increase the yield at the rate of ten bushels per acre.

Thus it is possible for the farmer who is not now doing these things to add 40 per cent to the average corn yield of his farm by practicing improved culture methods. The yield of other crops may be likewise increased, but the farmer should bear in mind this fact: that the increase in yield by better culture may be secured only by maintaining the fertility of the land and planting well-bred seed adapted to the soil and climate.

THE CHURCH IN THE OPEN COUNTRY.

By Warren H. Wilson, Superintendent of the Department of Church and Country Life of the Board of Home Missions of the Presbyterian Church of the United States.

It is my purpose to answer the question, “What is the use of the church in the open country?” We have some people who call themselves “spiritual,” who do not believe there is any permanent use of a church. Their religion consists of an insurance against fire; and as soon as they get a policy from an evangelist, they have no more use of a church, certainly not of a strong church. I want to speak to you of the church as an efficient institution, the builder of rural civilization.

We have other folk who are without land and without ownership of productive tools; they are under economic pressure; they are our American poor. They think they cannot afford anything that is not a necessity. I am here to argue that the church in the open country is a necessity, especially to the poor.

We have also some theorists, who believe that all rural institutions should be assembled in towns and villages, and that ultimately the farmers should reside there, going out every morning to their fields. I hope the time will never come when American farmers will so live. And I wish to speak to you of the church in the open country as the conserver of the soil, of the social life, the family and the school in the country.

The first reason for the existence of the church in the open country is the fact that “the soil is holy.” Already we are faced with a depleted soil in some of our richest agricultural states. But when the soil produces less, the poor will have to pay more for food and for wearing apparel. We have been warned that the time will come when the workingman cannot any longer wear wool or eat white bread. I have observed in the last two years that the clothes which I buy from a tailor who has supplied me for seventeen years do not any longer attract the moths. The moth turns up his nose at cotton, and cries for wool. The business of the farmer and of the sheep raiser is a religious business, because it is in the interest of the whole people. Whatever makes for the prosperity of the farmer will enrich and dignify all the people. The church is an institution essential to good farming, and it should be maintained where the farmer lives, out in the open fields.

Religion is a valuation of life. It values some things high, and some low, but it is, in the opinion of a recent scholar of repute, a system of values. Its highest word is “holy.” The land in which the Hebrews were settled was called “the Holy Land,” and nowadays the teachers of modern farming are declaring to the young, “The land is holy.” At a recent summer school for country ministers a professor lectured upon “the Holy Land,” meaning Palestine; and a great agriculturist came also to lecture upon the soil of the state in which the school was held, announcing his theme as “The Holy Earth.” We are entering a new era in religion, in which the values of life will be estimated by their services to the poor. In this consecration of the soil to the interest of the whole people the church of the open country will have a great place.

I know a minister in Maryland, where the soil has been exhausted by generations of peach-culture, and the farmers are turning to other crops in order to make a living. There the minister has found that his business is to preach scientific agriculture, and his most impressive service has been to raise a great crop of potatoes, with a dust mulch, the greatest ever raised at that time in that region. He became the leader of those farmers in the actual struggle for a livelihood. He helped them set their business on a firm footing. He preached as he worked, and his people responded accordingly.

The second reason for the maintaining of the church in the open country is the fact that it is the best school by which to teach the farmers to give of their prosperity to the community and to the common good. Farming is an austere occupation. The best farmers are always economically austere, which is defined by an economist as “the condition in which men produce much and consume little.” The very definition shows that of all occupations farming must be the most austere. But the practice of this austerity makes the farmer close and often mean. He stints himself and he stints everybody else. He refuses to support good roads, and he declines to pay for better schools because he is not a spender but a producer.

The church, of all institutions, makes the closest and most intimate appeal to the farmer. It is his school of giving. It has an agent living in the community, needing to be supported. The salary of the minister, and the supplying of his needs, are a constant education in the building of community utilities. The schools will be better maintained, the roads will be sooner reconstructed, even at greater cost, and the poor will be better cared for, where the church exists in the open country; to fertilize, with its appeals, the sour soil of the farmers’ austerity, with the needed ingredients for benevolence.

The third reason for the church in the open country is the fact that the church is a family builder. The rural household, which for three generations was the spring of American idealism, has been dissolved, in the past twenty years, by speculation. The exploitation of farm lands has made so many families nomads, and has retired so many farmers to the towns, that there is need of a new era of home building in the country.

The best fitted of all institutions for this service is the church. Her work, as she well knows, is with the young. Her membership is always made up largely of women, and with them lies the future of the American home in the country. The moving force in the exodus from the farm is too often the woman. The church will do more to make life worth while for her on the farm than all other institutions.

The fourth use of the church in the open country is as a center of the concern for the farmer’s income. The church in the country which does not sanctify the livelihood of the farmer will not survive. “The most successful farmers in America,” says an economist, “are the Mormons, the Scotch Presbyterians and the Pennsylvania Dutch.” All these are religious farmers, and their churches are their coöperative associations for farming. They all idealize country life. They are organized for agriculture. But, mark this, in all these country churches—and their churches are out in the open—the church has concern for the prosperity of its farmers as farmers. The income is the man’s job, and when the church would get the men it will care for the income. The Lord Almighty cares more for the feeding of the whole people than for any other thing. First of all God is the Father of men, and He cares most for their satisfaction in material things than for their having books, or for their having any of the higher refinements. If the people have not abundance of food and warm clothing, all moral and religious values will suffer. Therefore the farmer is the Lord’s hired man; and the church’s first business in the open country is “to produce the spirit in which the knowledge will be used, which will enable the farmer to succeed.”

The transition in economic affairs, through which we are passing, is working its effects upon the country churches. For the church is the best of all thermometers of the social economy. Many churches in the country are being closed. In the South alone, according to the Southern Baptist organ, sixteen hundred Baptist and Methodist country churches are closed every Sunday of the year. In the state of Illinois, our sociological surveys have shown that about seventeen hundred country churches have been closed and abandoned. It is the elimination of the unfit. It is the realignment of the religious people for greater efficiency, at new centers. There is no sign that country people are less religious than they were. But there is every indication that the churches are being sifted on the principle of efficiency.

The churches are suffering at the farmers’ hands another process, which I would like to describe as dehorning. It is like the removal of the horns from the heads of dairy cows; and it has the same purpose. Doctrinal subjects which divide are being tabooed, and the churches are no longer to hook and horn one another, but to live together in peace and produce the most of the milk of human kindness, with the greatest economy in the fodder of doctrine.

This transition is showing also in the inventing of a new type of church. It is appearing all over the land at the same time. I find it in all denominations, and it bears the marks of the same spirit everywhere. My friend, McNutt, at Plainfield, Illinois, has become the most eminent exponent of this new ideal of the pastorate, but he is far from being the only man who is so succeeding. He has a unique power of telling of his work; but many others, who cannot tell of it, can do as well. His church has the heart of the community; and there all the people, especially the young, gather for musical culture, for recreation, as well as for worship.

The modern church for the open country will be a community center. It will bring all the people together, by serving the needs which are common to all. For the community has taken the place once held by the farm household, as the circle of the life of country people. Tradition once ruled farming, but its place has been taken by science. The farmer can no longer teach his son to farm the land, therefore the household cannot dominate the country, as once it did. The new ideals of country life are community ideals. And the churches which are succeeding in the country are community churches.

The community center church cares for the young, for the growing boys and girls of the community, and for the farm hands. It is a center for the recreative life of the people. Music has its home in that church. Plays are presented under its auspices. The holidays of the year are celebrated at its instigation. Every needful enterprise that the country community requires for its development is fostered by the community church. I have known side paths to be made on country roads, in this manner, the whole countryside coming together for a “frolic” for the purpose of laying out these walks. I have known a country bank to be started in this way. There is no limit to the good that can be done in the country, in making country life worth while, by a church which has the community spirit.

My friends, worship is the symbol of the community. The church spire out in the fields is the center around which the whole locality revolves. The common assembly, on Sunday, does more, all over the open spaces of this great land, to organize people in neighborhoods, and to cultivate a country life ideal, and to make country life worth while, than all other institutions combined.

For there is nothing in the high price of farm land to keep the boy and girl on the farm. The only way for the conservation of the highest value of country life is to secure pastors who will live in the country, and churches through which they may build men into communities of farmers, contented, devoted to the work of a Divine Providence, and crowning the productive labor of the week with worship on the Lord’s Day, in the place where the community meets most fitly, in the church of the open country.

THE EXTENSION OF THE POSTAL SAVINGS SYSTEM TO OUR SCHOOLS AND ITS VALUE TO THE PRESENT AND COMING GENERATION.

By F. A. Filson, President of the Missouri Association of Assistant Postmasters.

Of the three great forward movements which have marked the history of the postal service during the past dozen years the inauguration and extension of the postal savings system is, we believe, destined to be the greatest and most far-reaching in its effects on the general welfare of the great mass of our people. Rural delivery, the first of the three great forward movements, it is true, has been not only a phenomenal success but has been of untold value to all classes of our people and is sure to grow in popularity and efficiency as the years go by. And the parcels post, the third great movement which we believe is sure to be inaugurated will in a measure revolutionize many branches of business, but in the end be of untold blessing and value to the masses; and whatever in our country is of great and lasting benefit to the masses is sure to be accomplished notwithstanding the opposition of wealthy corporations and selfish personal interests.

The postal savings system, like all other great forward movements, in its infancy met with violent opposition from many classes of our citizens, who for selfish reasons or lack of information violently opposed the enactment of the necessary legislation for its installation. Many of the same arguments which have been worn threadbare in the discussion of rural free delivery, parcels post and other progressive measures, were again brought into use and vociferously enunciated through the press and from the public platform and on the floors of Congress; but after mature deliberation and thorough discussion the right prevailed, as it generally does, and the necessary bill was enacted by Congress and a committee appointed who immediately got busy and laid plans for the inauguration of the system and adopted rules and regulations for the conduct of the business. Be it said to the everlasting honor and credit of this committee and its co-workers that the system evolved is, in the judgment of your humble servant, one of the very best, most comprehensive and practical of any system of its kind in use throughout the world. In fact, it is the product of the experience of all other nations plus the practical common sense American ideas of our illustrious chief and his co-workers on the committees. While our system is yet in its infancy, the phenomenal record it is making and the ease and celerity with which the machinery of the same is moving quietly along proves conclusively that while it may not be perfect it is founded upon correct principles and with a few alterations will become famous throughout the world as the American system of postal savings. It is with considerable pride that its advocates and promoters can point to the fact that every one of the predictions which they made before its inauguration and during the long campaign for the enactment of the necessary legislation has already been fully and conclusively demonstrated and proven beyond the possibility of a reasonable doubt. In fact, many of the bankers and those who so violently opposed the inauguration of the system have become fully convinced of the fact that it will be no detriment to the banking business of the country, but, on the other hand, will be of inestimable value in bringing from its hiding place the idle currency of the country and placing it in the banks and putting it into circulation. Not only has it demonstrated that it does and will do this, but it has, in the localities where depositories have been opened, originated and is continuing a sentiment favorable to creating and maintaining savings funds among many classes of people who have never before given the matter as much as a serious thought. The experience of our postal savings depository at Cameron is, I presume, about the same as that in other localities, namely, that over sixty per cent of our 300 or more depositors are men, women and children who never before had a bank account of any kind.

From our standpoint we believe that the fact that the system thus induces such thrift and frugality will be of untold blessing to the present as well as coming generations, and that as a result our nation will become richer and greater in the coming years and its people more prosperous, contented and happy. While the system inaugurated by the committee in charge is complete and comprehensive, yet in the very beginning of our experience at Cameron we saw the need of a little further extension of the same, and after giving the matter much thought and serious consideration we laid plans and have inaugurated in all the schools of our city penny savings banks, to be operated in each room of the schools, under the direction and charge of the superintendent and teachers. This system of penny savings banks in the schools works in connection, and is really a part of, our postal savings depository at the post office; and while it is an idea of my own, yet I have submitted it to the postmaster general and the postal savings system committee, and hope in the near future to see it adopted and extended to all the schools throughout the country. It is very simple and easily instituted and operated, and we believe will be heartily and enthusiastically received by the teachers of a majority of the schools throughout the country.

A brief explanation of the system, as we have it in Cameron, I believe would be of interest to all postal officials that have to do with the postal savings system, and I therefore take pleasure in presenting at this time a brief outline of the same, and would be pleased at any time to explain the workings more in detail or answer any questions that may be propounded.

The extension of the postal savings system to our schools and the establishment of the penny savings banks therein is based upon the facts that many of our children do not receive as much as ten cents at one time for their labor or for their spending money, and that they, like many of their elders, find it very difficult and at times almost impossible to keep money in their pockets for any given length of time. In fact, in many cases it immediately begins to “burn their pocket,” and must be spent at once. Hence their pennies and nickels are spent before they accumulate the necessary ten cents with which to purchase a saving card at the Post Office. Then again, the tendency of our time for years has been for the youth of the land to spend all they have or get, be it much or little, with great rapidity and absolutely without any idea of its value. In the inauguration of penny savings banks in our schools we endeavored to impress two valuable admonitions on the minds of every pupil: First, that every boy and girl should, as soon as he enters school, make it a point to earn a small amount of money each week; and, second, that they should make it an invariable rule to save at least one-half of all the money earned and given them and place it in a savings fund. In giving these two admonitions we made the assertion that if those in the primary department would follow these rules and deposit their money in the postal savings banks and invest it in government bonds, compounding their interest by withdrawing and depositing same, that at the age of twenty-five years the larger majority of them would have amassed sufficient capital to enter into any retail business in our city.

In introducing this extension I first laid the matter fully before our superintendent and received his unqualified endorsement of the same, and then arranged for a meeting with all the teachers of our schools and to them presented the postal savings system and our extension system for the schools, and after a full explanation they, with the superintendent, voted unanimously to place the same in our schools. Immediately after the opening of the schools I visited each one separately and presented the matter to the pupils and opened a penny savings bank, which was placed in charge of the teacher. I closed this feature of the work on Friday, September 15, and the results to date have been eminently satisfactory and very gratifying. I have arranged with the teachers to have them submit a weekly report during the two remaining weeks of this month showing, first the total number of depositors, second the total amount deposited, and third the average age of depositors. After the close of this month these reports will be made monthly instead of weekly.

ADDRESS.

F. C. Schwedtman, Chairman of the Delegation of the National Association of Manufacturers of U. S. A.

Permit me to extend to you, in the name of the great organization which I have the honor to represent, the good will, coöperation and support of thousands of progressive manufacturers from almost every state and city of the Union in every sane endeavor to preserve the natural resources of our nation.

I have listened with keen interest to yesterday’s and today’s arguments for the conservation of coal and timber, soil and water. It seemed to me particularly significant to have a lumberman in the person of the honorable chairman of your executive committee urge the preservation of our forests, and it was equally fitting to hear our great farmer Governor of Missouri make a plea for the soil. Of course, both of these gentlemen spoke upon subjects nearest to their hearts. Unfortunately I am not a farmer, but their action gives me courage to devote a few minutes to a few phases of the conservation problem nearest my heart.

Allow me, an employer of industrial labor, to plead for higher efficiency in the industries and especially for better opportunities for the millions of toilers, in the shops as well as upon the farm. The greatest nation of the future will be the nation that best understands how to economize and preserve human energy and happiness at home, and how to build up trade abroad.

President Taft told us last night how, by mixing science and proper education, our crops per acre can be doubled and trebled. In the same way can the output of our mines and factories be increased tenfold in value by industrial education. Instead of selling steel billets to the nations of the world, we want to sell them sewing machines, dynamos and watch springs; and instead of exporting raw cotton we want to export high grade cotton goods. This requires government support for industrial education, and I urge you, in return for our aid to secure agricultural schools and experimental stations, you give us yours to secure scientific industrial training. The National Association of Manufacturers is persistently and systematically working to that end. And there is another phase of preservation even more important. Among the measures pointed out in your handbook to which the association will give its vigorous support, both legislative and administrative, I find this: “Means wisely designed to diminish sickness, prevent accidents, and increase the welfare and comfort of American life, believing that human efficiency, health and happiness are natural resources quite as important as forests, water, land and minerals.” Now, I do know something of this feature of the preservation movement, and after the vigorous campaigning which the National Association of Manufacturers has carried on in the last two years for “human preservation” under my supervision, I feel that it is not only of equal importance to soil preservation, but more so.

Authorities tell us that in comparison of the vital and physical assets of a nation, as measured by earning power, the former are from three to five times as valuable as the latter. These authorities assert that there is as great room for improvement of our vital resources as in our lands, waters, minerals and forests, and that this improvement is possible in respect to both the length of life and to freedom from disease and accidental injury during life.

Prof. Irving Fisher estimates (in Bulletin Number 30 of the committee of one hundred on national health) that $250,000,000,000 is a minimum estimate of the vital assets of the United States in 1907 and that of the estimated annual loss of three billions of dollars due to sickness, accident and death, one-half, or one and one-half billion dollars, is preventable.

According to Dr. Tolman, the total number of work casualties suffered by our army of wage-workers is sufficient to carry on perpetually two such wars at the same time as the Russo-Japanese and our Civil war. According to the same authority, our railroads, during the year of 1906, killed and wounded more persons than were killed and wounded in the six bloodiest battles of the Civil War.

In all these directions our losses are from five to ten times greater proportionately than those of the most progressive European nations, and what are we doing about it?

The National Association of Manufacturers has carefully compiled facts and figures and has everlastingly spread the gospel of preventing these losses and compensating equitably the sufferers from unpreventable losses.

Do not think for one moment that this is a subject that does not concern the farmer. I can prove by facts and figures that the percentage of injuries among farmers is greater than in the industries, and easier prevented. If you want to convince yourself go to the nearest insurance office. You will find the accident insurance rates for the farmer higher than for the carpenter or machinist.

Some European countries have evolved compensation schemes by which $78 of every $100 paid for accident insurance is paid to the injured wage worker. Under our liability laws, only about $30 out of every $100 reaches the injured worker. What would you think of your neighbor if he were trying to run a machine with 30 per cent efficiency in competition with yours of 78 per cent efficiency? He would not last very long.

We ask your help in establishing sound, safe and efficient schemes in all the states of the Union. The first part of the problem will have to be solved by legislation, the second by coöperation, and it can be done only by a combination of all the progressive elements of society. It must be done as quickly as possible, bearing in mind all the time that he who starts out well prepared for a race is in better shape to win than he who hurries on without due preparation. We must have facts and figures before us and we must select the best men in the various states to act as investigation commissioners.

So-called reformers do not always appreciate this. A short time ago I addressed the governor and the legislature of one of our Middle Western states. The governor, a man of many fine qualities, asked me during the progress of my arguments why I had gathered such a mass of facts and figures from European sources. I asked him in return how he would settle it without statistics, and he replied, “We need no facts and figures, all we need is the right kind of a gizzard.” Of course there is no sense in arguing with such a man. He misunderstands the issue. Americans do not need, and do not want charity; they want justice.

We in the United States will eventually have the best system for preserving the best resources of our country, the health and well-being of our people, the self-respect and earning capacity of our wage-workers, the lives and limbs of our toilers, but it will take the combined energy and wisdom of all of us to bring this about.

REPORT OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION.

By Wm. O. Stillman, President.

The American Humane Association, during the past year, has been actively engaged in promoting the development of humanitarian work in the United States, and has also been useful in promoting a similar work in many foreign lands. During October, 1910, there was held under the auspices of this association, in the city of Washington, D. C., and under the Honorary Presidency of William H. Taft, the President of our country, the first American International Humane Conference. There were present representatives from thirty foreign countries. The addresses, papers and topics which were heard were of great value. There was also held, in connection with the International Conference, the first international exhibit of objects of humane interest. This was shown in the New United States National Museum building, where the conference was also held. The exhibition, which lasted a week, proved phenomenal in extent and interest.

As a direct and acknowledged result of the Washington conference, there is to be held, during June, 1912, in London, England, a similar international congress, which it is believed will greatly assist the spread of work which we represent.

The result of international meetings of this description is to promote the spread of humanitarian doctrines everywhere. Representatives were present at Washington from Japan, China, India, Persia, Turkey, Russia, Australia, and almost every section of the globe. We believe that the choicest asset which any nation possesses is its childhood. Our anti-cruelty societies are seeking all over the world to protect childhood from influences which are prejudicial to health or morals. This means a better standard and average in childhood, and the elimination of great masses of the youth which, under present conditions, inevitably become recruits of the armies of vagrancy and crime.

The other great field of humane endeavor is to promote the conservation and protection of animal life. The livestock of a country constitutes one of the most valuable assets, in an intrinsic sense, which a country like ours can possess. As pointed out in our report last year, efforts which may readily be made would result in the saving of hundreds of thousands of horses and cattle for longer and more useful service.

The American Humane Association intends to ask Congress for relief of transportation conditions which are responsible for great injury and loss of livestock, by requesting that a minimum speed bill be enacted. This proposition has been heartily endorsed by the Department of Agriculture in Washington and by humanitarians generally. Various other reforms are contemplated and will be pushed to a conclusion in the near future.

We feel that our work is a thoroughly practical one, and that in its largest sense it stands for better citizenship and the promotion of the moral interests of the commonwealth as well as its commercial ones. We trust that the Third National Conservation Congress will approve of the work in which we are engaged, which represents a membership of much over one hundred thousand persons and an expenditure of more than a million and a half dollars annually.

CONSERVATION OF BIRD LIFE.

By Dr. George W. Field, Representing the National Audubon Society.

I want to call your attention to one phase which has hardly been touched upon—importance of the conservation of our bird life. When you realize that the insect places a tax upon every one of us twice as great as we are called upon to pay to our towns, cities and states, a tax of at least five per cent on every agriculturist and consumer of food in this nation, we realize the work of the National Audubon Society, which is organized for the purpose of protecting the wild insectivorous birds. The resources of this association last year were about $35,000. Over against that was this damage to our agricultural interests of over one million dollars. So you can see therefore that we have been able to do but very little relatively. When we compare the condition in this country with that of Germany, where they have one hundred times as many birds to the square mile as we have in this country, we realize the importance of the work which this association is carrying on. We ask your support, every one, in every way, to assist the activities of this National Audubon Society. (Applause)

I also represent the National Shell Fish Association. Now, the purpose of this association is to issue, so to speak, a sanitary insurance to every person who consumes oysters, clams, lobsters and that type of sea food. In other words, we want to make it possible that when you in Kansas, Missouri, and in the interior of the country, eat from your table, or in your hotels, oysters brought from the seacoast of both sides of this nation, to be certain that there is no chance of infection, of typhoid fever, or other disease. To do that we are asking every state in the Nation to realize the enormous waste of material in the form of sewage and manufacturing waste which is pouring into our streams and into our coastal waters. To take one concrete illustration, the city of Boston, in Massachusetts, spent five or six millions of dollars for the purpose of putting the sewage into the ocean. It did that, but when it did it destroyed annually the potential capacity of that water to develop shell fish food. In other words, it was precisely the same as if so many thousands of acres in your farming country were utterly destroyed forever for all farming purposes. It was reduced merely to a desert, whereas, if that material had been placed on the land, where it belonged, there would have been enormous benefits arising to the farm, and it would have been possible to cultivate that land under water for raising food. Now, we are demonstrating, acre for acre, that the land under water can raise more food—nitrogenous food, the most expensive type of food for man—at a less expense in time, in capital, and in labor, than the very best acres in your boasted river bottoms, a type of food material which can be raised nowhere else than on the coasts of our country, on both the Atlantic and Pacific and the Gulf.

ADDRESS.

By W. J. Rushton, President American Association of Refrigeration.

I desire to thank the Congress in the name of the members of the American Association of Refrigeration for the invitation to be represented here by official delegates.

We consider it especially fitting that our association should participate in the deliberations of this Congress, because it stands for the conservation of the perishable foods of the people in the broadest sense.

In order that those who are not already familiar with the objects of our Association and with the methods it employs in carrying these into effect, and to illustrate how well our work meshes with the purposes of this National Congress, I will call your attention to several statements taken from the statutes by which our organization is governed. Among our objects are:

“To institute investigations, experiments and tests for the purpose of demonstrating, correct solutions of scientific, technical and industrial problems pertaining to the art of refrigeration.

“To inspire confidence in the public mind, and appreciation of the beneficial effects of refrigeration upon perishable food products, both in transit and when stored for the purpose of conservation, by collecting and disseminating authentic information on the subject.

“To encourage the expansion of American trade, commerce and transportation of perishable agricultural products, and to assist the commercial and industrial interests affected by mechanical refrigeration, both at home and abroad.

“To further its purposes and extend its influence by publications, meetings, conferences and courses of lectures, and by encouraging the introduction in educational institutions of regular courses in refrigeration.

“To coöperate with the International Association of Refrigeration in the organization of international commissions for the discussion of questions of international import, and in the determination of correct basic data pertaining to the art of refrigeration.”

The conservation of the natural resources of the country is now recognized by all thinking persons as a vital factor in our national life, both as an obligation to posterity and because of its immediate influence on the material welfare and the health of the people.

The influence of this Congress, as it is felt more generally over the country, must result in strongly stimulating thrift and economy as well as respect for law among the people. The exercise of these qualities is essential to the conservation of the waters, the forests, the lands and the minerals, as well as all of the vital resources of the country.

Our people—in fact, the people of all the civilized countries of the world—are now confronted with serious problems due to the high prices of the necessaries of life, principally their food supplies.

It is believed that these conditions largely grow out of neglect to properly conserve and market perishable foods and to lack of adequate means for promptly collecting and transporting them in sound condition from regions capable of ample production to the thickly populated centers; also to insufficient means for preserving such supplies from seasons of overproduction to periods of scarcity.

It is certainly a very necessary and laudable mission, to concentrate the intelligence and energy of a body of men such as compose this Congress for the conservation of the forests, lands, waters, minerals and vital resources of the country. Our association is very much interested in all of this, because lumber, minerals and water are very necessary to the refrigerating industry, while the conservation of the soil is of paramount importance as the source of the fuel of the great human engine through the operation of which all of the other resources are harnessed to the world’s work.

We are, therefore, here particularly to emphasize the necessity of conserving the perishable foods of the people by refrigeration, that much misunderstood and often misrepresented natural mode of preservation.

However productive the soil may be made, and however ample the supply of highly nutritious food may be, unless such food is made available for use when and where it is needed, and where it must be supplied at prices the people can afford to pay, the conservation of the soil will have failed of extending the fullest measure of its possible benefits to the people.

Our organization has made an especial study of the subject of the production, the transportation and the conservation of perishable foods, and of the laws and proposed laws applying to the subject. The hearings before the Senate committees on manufactures of the Sixty-first and Sixty-second Congresses, the reports of which are published by the National Government, abound in evidences of the activity of our committees and individual members.

Therefore, if it is in order and otherwise agreeable, I would like to propose that, in furtherance of the purposes of this Congress, and in order that its opportunities for doing good may be realized in the fullest measure, a standing committee on food be added to the present standing committees. Such committee to be composed of persons best qualified to render the most efficient service in the study of the questions involved in the production, collection, transportation, preservation and marketing of perishable foods, and to report to the Fourth Congress. Such report to be made the basis of measures to conserve the perishable foods of the people, to improve their quality, increase their production, and to promote such relations between the producer and consumer as will bring about lower and more nearly uniform prices throughout each year.

WILD LIFE PROTECTION.

William Edward Coffin, Vice-President Camp Fire Club of America, Chairman Committee on Game Protective Legislation and Preserves.

The Camp Fire Club of America was founded as an organization of big game hunters, with the protection of wild life and forests as its great objects. Dan Beard once characterized the club as a “Society of Criminals for the Suppression of Crime.” Big game hunters have always been active in game protection, indeed in all conservation measures, and that because their touch with the woods keeps the problem alive.

To the sportsmen of America are due nearly all the existing game protective laws.

Among the Camp Fire Club’s members are Dr. W. T. Hornaday, whom all honor as the Washington of wild life protection; Ernest Thompson Seton and Dan Beard, who by their work with the boys are doing more for the future of conservation than any men living with but two exceptions: Irving Bacheller, A. W. Dimock, Dillon Wallace, Gifford Pinchot—God bless him—and many others, who with pen, time and money are laboring ceaselessly for the great cause of conservation which is so near your hearts and mine.

The club may fairly claim for less than two years’ work: Yeoman service in the defeat of the bill permitting the sale of wild bird plumage in New York; the defeat of a bill authorizing spring shooting of ducks on Long Island; in securing the $20,000 appropriation for the starving elk in Wyoming; in enlarging the Waterton lake, park and game preserve now being formed in Southwestern Alberta.

To the Camp Fire Club belongs the sole credit, outside of Congress, for defeating the proposed twenty-year renewal of the Fur Seal Killing lease on the Pribilof Islands. Much of the credit for that public opinion which forced the treaty stopping pelagic sealing. When the fur herd is, through complete protection, restored to something like its old numbers, the country will have the Camp Fire Club to thank for fairly snatching that herd from the jaws of complete annihilation.

To Dr. Hornaday, our great leader, is due the famous Bayne-Blauvelt bill—the greatest single piece of game protective legislation ever enacted by any state or country. Think of it; that bill absolutely prohibits the sale of all wild game in the State of New York. The lion’s share of the campaign work incident to its passage was done by members of the Camp Fire Club. How well it was done you will realize when I state that the bill passed with only one dissenting vote in the whole legislature; and how it was done when I say that upwards of 30,000 letters were written asking senators and assemblymen to support the bill. The passage of that bill was the turning point of the war between the army of destruction and the army of preservation in New York state.

I must not leave this subject without a tribute to Governor Dix of New York, without whose hearty coöperation and steadfast support we would have been helpless.

In spite of great pressure by selfish interests he stood like a rock and has fully redeemed the ante-election pledges of himself and of his party. Let his name be written in the Conservation Temple of Fame.

So much for the past. For the future: 1st. We propose to keep everything we have gained. 2d. We have arranged for Gifford Pinchot and Overton Price to visit the Adirondack Mountains, study the situation and make a report which will make possible sound, seasonable legislation for “Scientific Fire Protection,” “Scientific Reforestation,” “Scientific Care of Existing Forests.” Legislation which combines sane utilization with sound conservation.

I wish you all could have seen the cheerfulness with which Pinchot and Price responded to the request of the club that they undertake this work.

The club is, at the request of the New York State Conservation Commissioners, to coöperate in a complete codification of the state game laws.

This we hope will result in a series of stringent but reasonable laws; simple, plain, readily enforced. Laws which the National Conservation Congress will be proud of and can safely recommend as a model for other states.

This is largely work in one state only, but it is wise to clear your own door yard before preaching sanitation to your neighbors, and with the beam removed from our own eye, we can the better see how to remove the mote from our brother’s.

Outside of New York we propose: 1st. To push Bayne-Blauvelt bills in the North Atlantic states for stopping the sale of game. Thus striking at the root of game slaughter is far more effective than attempting to police the army of market hunters or any other method of trimming the branches. 2d. We shall agitate ceaselessly for the complete protection of the fur seal. 3d. We shall do what we can to put life into the Migratory Bird Bill, which has been in congressional cold storage for so many years, and to promote a migratory fish bill. 4th. We propose to urge upon states—even upon counties—the formation of bird, game and fish refuges, one of the most effective methods of game protection. 5th. We shall hold ourselves in readiness to further any and every sound proposition for the conservation of this country’s natural resources, whether animal, vegetable or mineral.

And now having finished my report, permit me a few words of indictment and a few words of appeal.

The National Conservation Congress and Association heretofore have practically ignored wild life. Infinite and detailed attention has been given to lands, minerals, water and forests, and the Camp Fire Club is with you in all these, but are your halls so narrow, your boundaries so confined, that you have no room for the great cause of wild life protection?

Do you realize that in New York state alone there are nearly 150,000 active gunners; in Pennsylvania over 100,000, and that even a two shot gun does not satisfy them?

The laws in all states are so liberal to the killers and so hard on the game that wild life is swiftly vanishing.

The commercial interests of gun-making, game selling and feather working are terribly destructive influences. No wild species can stand exploitation for commercial purposes. In every case it spells extermination. Look backward at the millions of bison, fur seal, passenger pigeon, pinnated grouse and Florida egrets. Where are they all? Exterminated to fill the cash boxes of greedy men.

How much longer is Christian civilization, how much longer are you going to stand for such things? In birds alone six species are absolutely extinct, thirteen more nearly so. Our states are spending millions to fight insect pests whose increase is due chiefly to the decrease of bird life. How can it be stopped? By your efforts, those of the Camp Fire Club and other organizations. There must be a pull, a long pull and a pull all together. The majority of the American people are conscientious, humane, just and merciful toward all creatures; once arouse that majority and it will right any wrong.

The protection of wild life requires a campaign of education and publicity; given these, legislation will follow as light follows the sun. Congressmen and legislators will do the right thing if they are asked to do it often enough and hard enough by the people they represent. We do not appeal to this Congress as sportsmen or in the interest of sportsmen; but for the millions of men, women and children who love the outdoor life and who do not shoot at all.

We therefore ask for two things: 1st. A broad definite recognition in your platform organization and proceedings of this great branch of the conservation movement. We ask a standing committee on wild life protection. 2d. Your coöperation, collectively and individually. Bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, blood brothers, the Camp Fire Club, true of heart, clear of hand, eager in support of all you stand for, calls to you.

Come over into Macedonia and help us.

PREVENTABLE FIRE WASTE: CONSERVATION EFFORTS FOR ITS REDUCTION.

By a Committee of the National Board of Fire Underwriters.

In each of the previous national assemblages of this character the National Board of Fire Underwriters has been represented and has earnestly endeavored to portray the enormity of the preventable fire waste of our country and its retarding effect on our national growth and prosperity.

With each annual meeting of our organization, statistical information has been prepared and furnished to the public and press, setting forth the tremendous money value in property which was being annually destroyed by fire throughout our country. As an aid toward convincing our people that a vast amount of real wealth was being wiped out of existence annually by preventable fires, our committee on statistics and origin of fires, by the aid of the Federal Government, secured figures of the fire loss in European cities and countries, which were compared with the fire loss of the cities of the United States and the United States as a whole and reduced to a comparison of the loss per capita. These figures were published by the National Board of Fire Underwriters in 1906. The comparison was so startling as to attract very wide attention and gave activity to the fire conservation movement.

The Geological Survey, through its technologic branch, investigated the fire loss and the cost of fire protection in the United States in 1907, and published Bulletin 418, known as “The Fire Tax and Waste of Structural Materials in the United States”—a pamphlet most impressive in the facts presented and irrefutable in its arguments. We quote a section:

“The investigation disclosed the fact that the total cost of fires in the United States in 1907 amounted to almost one-half the cost of new buildings constructed in the country for the year. The total cost of the fires, excluding that of forest fires and marine losses, but including excess cost of fire protection due to bad construction, and excess premiums over insurance paid, amounted to over $456,485,000, a tax on the people exceeding the total value of the gold, silver, copper, and petroleum produced in the United States in that year. The cost of building construction in forty-nine leading cities of the United States reporting a total population of less than 18,000,000 amounted, in 1907, to $661,076,286, and the cost of building construction for the entire country in the same year is conservatively estimated at $1,000,000,000. Thus it will be seen that nearly one-half the value of all the new buildings constructed within one year is destroyed by fire. The total fire cost in this country is five times as much per capita as in any country of Europe. This fire cost was greater than the value of the real property and improvements in any one of the following states: Maine, West Virginia, North Carolina, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alabama, Louisiana, Montana.

“The actual fire losses due to the destruction of buildings and their contents amounted to $215,084,709, a per capita loss for the United States of $2.51. The per capita losses in the cities of the six leading European countries amounted to but 33 cents, or about one-eighth of the per capita loss sustained in the United States. In addition to this waste of wealth and natural resources, 1,449 persons were killed and 5,654 were injured in fires.

“The total loss on buildings in the United States was $109,156,894 and on contents $105,927,815. There were fires in 36,140 brick, iron, and stone buildings, with a loss of $31,092,687 on the buildings and $37,332,580 on the contents, and in 129,117 frame buildings, with a loss of $78,064,207 on the buildings and $68,595,235 on the contents. In cities and villages with a population of 1,000 or more there were 6,324 fires that extended beyond the building of origin, with a total exposure loss of $13,913,694. The loss on fires that were confined to the building of origin in the cities and villages amounted to $93,179,589.”

The records of this board herewith subjoined show to what extent our fire loss has increased almost yearly since 1875.

Year. Aggregate Property Loss.

1875 $78,102,285

1876 54,630,600

1877 68,265,800

1878 64,315,900

1879 77,703,700

1880 74,643,400

1881 81,280,900

1882 84,505,024

1883 100,149,228

1884 110,008,611

1885 102,818,796

1886 104,924,750

1887 120,283,055

1888 110,885,665

1889 123,046,833

1890 108,993,792

1891 143,764,967

1892 151,516,058

1893 167,544,370

1894 140,006,484

1895 142,110,233

1896 118,737,420

1897 116,354,575

1898 130,593,905

1899 153,597,830

1900 160,929,805

1901 165,817,810

1902 161,078,040

1903 145,302,155

1904 229,198,050

1905 165,221,650

1906 518,611,800

1907 215,084,709

1908 217,885,850

1909 188,705,150

1910 214,003,300

The fire insurance interests have carried on an aggressive campaign for the reduction of our discreditable fire losses and have been foremost in suggesting practical and reasonable remedial measures.

At the First Conservation Congress a paper on “The Fire Waste in the United States” was presented by this board and upwards of 12,000 copies were distributed to state and municipal authorities and to the press. We quote the causes then set forth as operating to make the large fire waste in the United States.

“First: The difference in the point of view and the responsibility of the inhabitants of Europe and those of the United States.

“Second: The difference in the construction of buildings.

“Third: The difference in the regulations governing hazards and hazardous materials and conditions, and in the enforcement of such regulations.”

And suggested as essential means toward its reduction:

“First: That the public should be brought to understand that property destroyed by fire is gone forever and is not replaced by the distribution of insurance which is a tax collected for the purpose.

“Second: That the states severally adopt and enforce a building code which shall require a high type of safe construction, essentially following the code of the National Board of Fire Underwriters.

“Third: That municipalities adopt ordinances governing the use and keeping of explosives, especially inflammable commodities and other special hazards, such as electric wiring, the storing of refuse, waste, packing material, etc., in buildings, yards or areaways, and see to the enforcement of such ordinances.

“Fourth. That the states severally establish and support the office of fire marshal and confer on the fire marshal by law the right to examine under oath and enter premises and to make arrests, making it the duty of such officer to examine into the cause and origin of all fires and when crime has been committed requiring the facts to be submitted to the grand jury or proper indicting body.

“Fifth: That in all cities there be a paid, well-disciplined, non-political fire department adequately equipped with modern apparatus.

“Sixth: That an adequate water system with proper distribution and pressure be installed and maintained. In the larger cities a separate high pressure water system for fire extinguishment is an absolute necessity, to diminish the extreme imminence of general conflagrations.”

At the Second Conservation Congress a paper on the “Conservation of Utilized Resources from Destruction by Fire” was presented by us and about 13,000 copies were widely distributed. We quote a section:

“If the office of State Fire Marshal were created by every commonwealth, and that official and his deputies given power to enforce good fire prevention laws, investigate, and, if necessary, prosecute cases of arson or criminal carelessness in the starting or spreading of fires, ascertain the cause of every fire, and by the distribution of literature educate the citizen to the need of care and forethought in the protection of his property, a distinct conserving of the utilized resources in that state would follow.

“If our municipalities will enact and enforce improved and safe methods of building construction and cause the removal or reconstruction of existing structures which constitute, because of their construction, a menace to adjoining properties, our cities will be freer from the imminent conflagration which now threatens them. Eliminate defective chimney flues, unprotected external and internal openings, excessive areas, weak walls, and combustible roofs; prohibit the storage of rubbish and demand the safe use and handling of dangerous inflammable liquids and oils; regulate the use of explosives; and the destruction of our values, created from the natural resources but enriched many fold by human toil, industry and skill, will be materially diminished.

“If the citizens of a community, as members of their local civic bodies and boards of trade, will create in such organizations a Committee on Fire Prevention, whose duty it shall be to study the subject and awaken among their associates a realization of individual and communal responsibility, and if our boards of education will emulate the action of the State of Ohio in prescribing primal education of the school children as to the chemistry of fire, the causes of fires in our homes and how to guard against them, and how to extinguish incipient fires or hold them in check while awaiting the response of the fire department, a preparation will be made in that community which will check the constantly increasing fire waste.”

This organization has not been alone in its efforts in this direction, neither has there been an entire absence of activity on the part of state and municipal authorities.

The National Fire Protection Association, of which the National Board of Fire Underwriters is an active member, has through some of its members, but principally through its secretary, delivered forty-two addresses on the fire waste in thirty-one different cities. At the annual meeting of the association held in New York in May last, it adopted the following resolutions, urging upon the public the vital importance of better construction and protection, and of a greater care in the maintenance of property:

“The National Fire Protection Association, with all the force at its command and with the absolutely united and unanimous support of its entire membership, wishes to place before the public in the strongest possible terms that the situation in connection with the fire waste is becoming so acute that there is necessity for action.

“Action by all cities and towns in adopting proper building codes, which will call for improved conditions and the use of fire resisting construction in congested districts.

“Action by the state and municipal authorities covering the regulation of the transportation and storage of inflammable oils and explosives.

“Action by those in authority to the end that all buildings where people congregate, such as schools, theaters, factories, and hotels, shall be so constructed and equipped that the lives of the people within them may be safe-guarded.

“Action by the proper authorities requiring the introduction of automatic fire extinguishing apparatus in all commercial establishments and city blocks.

“Action by the proper authorities prohibiting the manufacture and sale and use of the snap match and requiring the universal adoption and use of the safety match.

“Action by the public in bringing about a safe and intelligent celebration of Independence Day, and, above all,

“Action by every citizen of the land in using his individual effort in the cause of educating the public in regard to the dangers from fire, not only in so far as it applies to the personal and immediate consideration, but also from the broader standpoint, namely: that of the welfare of our land.”

At the same meeting the Association was honored in being addressed on “The Fire Waste” by the Hon. Walter L. Fisher, Secretary of the Interior, from whose remarks we quote:

“Indeed, I do not doubt that the average intelligent citizen of the United States is aware of the fact that fires in America are comparatively frequent. He undoubtedly appreciates in a general way that a large percentage of our fires are from preventable causes, and that the sacrifice of life and property through loss by fire is, much of it, needless. What he does not fully realize is his own duty, and the duty of city, state and nation in the premises. He understands as yet but vaguely the significance of that change of public sentiment which has made of the movement for the conservation of our natural resources. He glimpses but dimly how great an obstacle to human progress and to human happiness is needless waste, whether it be in the use we make of the products and the forces of nature, or the productions and the energies of men. If the justification of private property is that it tends to promote the common good through increased energy and increased efficiency, which is the antithesis of waste, then the broadest application of the principles of conservation should extend to our created as well as our natural resources, for in the last analysis the loss by fire of a city building owned by an individual will be just as important to the people of the United States as the loss by fire of timber in the public domain. Both the building and the timber are assets of the Nation. If they are destroyed these assets are wiped out. No system of taxation will serve to bring them back, whether this tax be collected by the constituted authorities under the law, or collected by private interests as premiums on policies of insurance. In either event, the taxation is paid by the owners of property and it is ultimately borne by the community as a whole. Reforestation costs money which must be levied through taxation in some form. Rebuilding a dwelling house, or a business block, or the business district of a city, costs money, a large proportion of which under insurance methods is assessed against property which has not burned. It is the people who pay, whether they own land or buildings or other things of value. It follows thus that the question of fire waste is of direct pecuniary interest to every citizen. Beyond the individual pecuniary interests, there is also the obligation of each citizen to his fellows to so protect his property and conduct his affairs as not to endanger the lives and property of his neighbors.

“It is the duty of organized society to protect its members in life and property. But organized society, it is clearly shown, has been remiss in its duty. The obligations of municipal, state and national government have not been met.

“It takes the force of public opinion to accomplish any reform, and your association should receive hearty aid and encouragement, for through it much of the educational work which is a prerequisite to any successful agitation may be accomplished. There is a real and vital necessity for teaching each citizen of the United States the significance of the national fire waste. The truth in regard to our national ash heap should be brought home to each person having a family to protect and property to preserve.

“It seems ridiculous that a people so apt and so eager to seek out and destroy the mysterious and hidden enemies of mankind should be so slow and sluggish in fighting a foe so plainly in sight and so readily vanquished. We have led the world in seeking out the causes of pestilence and removing them. We are in the very vanguard of the battle against tuberculosis, typhoid and yellow fever, and still we stand apart and let the older nations lead the fight against an enemy much more easily conquered.

“To arouse the people against the fire foe is our task. If there were any dispute as to the facts, if anyone opposed a movement to check the fire loss, the American people might more readily become partisans of this movement which you are leading. But there is no difference of opinion regarding the essentials. The average American citizen would admit that our fire waste is in the nature of a national disgrace. The task is to make him do something to remedy conditions. You must popularize your movement and create a general demand for adequate laws and thorough enforcement. To relieve the people of the unnecessary burden which they are now carrying, you must teach them the importance and the significance of that burden. You must show them the necessity for a defence against this common enemy. Organized methods must be adopted for bringing the significance of the fire waste before every person who will read the written word or listen to the spoken one. Let the people once realize the exact facts of their own negligence, and they will be swift to provide the remedy.”

The Western Union, an organization of insurance companies operating in the Middle and Central West, has carried on, by public speeches of some of its members and through its committee on publicity, a most commendable campaign to impress the public with the significance of our fire waste. Numerous circulars have been distributed and printed in whole or in part in the newspapers.

Many commercial bodies and boards of trade of our cities have taken up the subject of the fire waste, appointed local committees on fire prevention and advocated and secured improvements tending to afford better fire protection, and lessen the great financial drain which the fire loss was causing in their communities.

The National Association of Credit Men, which has perhaps devoted more time to the study of insurance and the fire waste of the country than any other commercial body, has been very active in acquainting business men with the importance of the subject and in encouraging the adoption by municipality and state of such remedial measures as will tend to diminish the steadily and rapidly increasing fire losses.

The states of Ohio, Montana, Nebraska and Iowa are instructing their school children as to the importance of observing greater care in the handling and use of the ordinary fire hazards. The Fire Insurance Commissioners in annual convention in August last adopted the following resolutions:

“The appalling annual loss of life and property in the United States by fires, due to criminal carelessness, ignorance or dishonesty, commands the serious attention of the American people. From present indications over $300,000,000 in property values will be utterly wiped out during the current year—a sum so vast that it must have a serious economic effect on the prosperity of the country. The causes for this enormous drain on the savings of the Nation are well known and to a large extent preventable.

“The destruction of property by fire is ten times as great per capita in the United States as it is in Germany, France, England, and other countries abroad; and in addition to this needless waste of property there are also thousands of men, women and children burned to death or crippled in the various local fires and conflagrations that constantly occur. The chief factor responsible for this situation is general carelessness and the utter lack of personal responsibility for the removal of causes productive of fires.

“We recommend a campaign of education through the governors, insurance commissioners and fire marshals of the various states, for the purpose of bringing directly to the attention of the people the causes responsible for the national ash heap, and the adoption of legislation which will safeguard the lives and property of the people by holding every individual responsible for carelessness resulting in fires.

“We commend the suggestion unanimously adopted by the Association of Fire Marshals of North America, urging that the governors of the various states set aside one day each year to be known as ‘fire prevention day.’ By proclamation the governor can call the attention of the citizens to the enormous preventable fire waste of the country, and urge the taking of such precautions, individual, municipal and state, as will tend to reduce it. Appropriate exercises can be held in the public schools, instruction on the common fire hazards can be given the children, and the day can be made the occasion of the ‘clean-up’ day, which is doing so much to remove hazardous conditions.

“Resolved. That the individual members of the convention will use their influence to secure such action by the governors of their respective states, as an important, practical and educational assistance in the work of fire prevention.”

The governors of a number of our commonwealths have already acted favorably on part of the foregoing suggestions and by proclamation have set aside a day to be known as “fire prevention day,” when the citizens will be called upon to clean up their several premises and provide better fire protection, as a part of a nation-wide study of fire waste, and the individual responsibility of property owners and householders.

The State Fire Marshals in annual session adopted somewhat similar resolutions. The awakening of our people on this subject affords encouragement, but as yet it is only partial, incomplete, and not in keeping with the national importance of the subject.

A number of our states enacted fire marshal laws during their last legislative sessions, some of which were commendable in their provisions, but many of them embodied the false theory that such laws are more beneficial to the fire insurance companies than to the public, and impose on the former an additional tax for its support and enforcement. In contrast to this policy, the Legislature of New York State, recognizing that the state was collecting through its insurance department vastly more than the expenses of the department, enacted what may be taken as a model fire marshal law, the provisions of which are to be carried out and enforced by the state at its own expense.

Probably two-thirds of our fire loss is from preventable causes. Based on this estimate, nearly two hundred million dollars of property values are unnecessarily destroyed annually, reducing the wealth of the Nation in like measure, since insurance does not restore but merely indemnifies out of remaining wealth. It has truly been said that this preventable fire waste is a national disgrace, and we have the humiliation of knowing that the United States is by far the leader in this discreditable condition.

Publicity has been mentioned recently as a cure, or partial cure, for other evils. Likewise publicity will have an advantageous effect in preventing fires. A special lesson to be preached and reiterated is that those who cause, or have, avoidable fires, injure their neighbors, their municipalities, their states and their country. They have created a part of the two hundred million yearly “national scandal.” They have destroyed wealth and increased taxes. They have been bad citizens.

If the distinguished persons who are in attendance here will interest themselves in their respective communities and states and advocate the cause of conservation of the fire waste and the elimination of preventable fires, they will help, and give an impetus to, the movement for lessened fire losses and the saving of lives from fire. While the members of the National Board of Fire Underwriters have an advantage of contact and outlook as to the fire situation, they have no more and no different interest in the subject than have other citizens. Good citizenship demands that all, individually and collectively, should do their full part in inculcating principles and bringing about practices which will stop the ravages of the tremendous fire waste that is scandalous because obviously preventable.

Geo. W. Babb, New York.

W. N. Kremer, New York.

E. W. West, Glens Falls, N. Y.

E. G. Richards, New York.

R. M. Bissell, Hartford, Conn.

R. Dale Benson, Philadelphia.

C. G. Smith, New York.

REPORT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES.

By William P. Wharton.

To cultivate in the public mind a more lively appreciation of the value of preserving the wild bird and animal life of America, is the object of the National Association of Audubon Societies for the protection of wild birds and animals. Backed by thirty-eight state Audubon societies, the National Association is directing its endeavors along certain definite lines of activity.

Coöperating with state forest, fish and game commissions and with local clubs, organized for game protection, the association is an important factor in aiding to secure legislation looking to the protection at all times of the valuable non-game birds, and the preservation from undue killing of the various game birds and game animals with which the country is blessed. In forty states the Audubon law for the protection of non-game birds has been enacted, and in many other states Audubon bills for the establishment of state game warden forces, the shortening of seasons for killing game, the creation of game protective funds by requiring hunter’s licenses, limits on the number of game birds which may be killed in a day and other restrictive measures have been enacted.