578 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



CONSERVATION IDEALS IN THE IMPROVEMENT OF 



PLANTS 



Br Dk. H. J. WEBBER 



NEW YORK STATE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



THE conservation movement had its inception in the wasteful meth- 

 ods practised in the utilization of our national resources, such as 

 our forests and mineral deposits. Alfred Russel Wallace, the great 

 English evolutionist and contemporary of Darwin, has characterized 

 the last century as a century of despoliation of the natural resources of 

 the earth. Our forests have been ruthlessly destroyed until good lumber 

 has reached a very high price, and turpentine and resin in sufficient 

 quantities to meet the world's requirements can scarcely be obtained. 

 In the meantime large areas, denuded of forests, have been changed in 

 climatic conditions and the fertile soils exposed to destructive erosion. 

 Coal beds are being worked in ever increasing quantities and must ulti- 

 mately be exhausted. The Chilean nitrate-of-soda deposits are ap- 

 proaching exhaustion. We- use without thought of the morrow. The 

 conservation movement has extended to the consideration of soil fer- 

 tility, the proper utilization of water, of water power, of our land do- 

 main, and the like. 



There is scarcely any source of wealth or of material necessities that 

 has not felt the influence of the conservation movement. If we seek the 

 real source or reason for this inquiry, it is to be found in the rapid in- 

 crease of our population. The arguments are too familiar to require 

 repetition. We all know that the population of this country and of the 

 world is increasing so rapidly that the time is not far distant when our 

 children will have great difficulty in producing the necessary supplies 

 to maintain life. The teeming millions of fifty and one hundred years 

 hence will not have the rich, virgin lands on which to extend their agri- 

 culture, the primeval forests, the apparently inexhaustible coal beds, 

 the extensive deposits of phosphates, nitrates and potash salts, to use 

 in rebuilding their soils. All these sources of supply that we have 

 utilized and found so necessary to life will be gone or rapidly disap- 

 pearing, and the extent of the demand will meanwhile have increased 

 many fold. It takes no very extraordinary vision to picture the fierce- 

 ness of the struggle for existence that must soon be reached in the de- 

 velopment of the human race. True, there is no immediate concern, 

 as the world will comfortably support a very much larger population ; 

 but to preserve future generations from danger requires the wise action 

 of the present and succeeding generations. The careful study of the 



