THE PROBLEM OF IMPOVERISHED LANDS. 



Part I. HOW TO UNDERSTAND THE PROBLEM. 



" Some of my land will not produce a crop, although my father 

 raised good crops on it. What shall I do to make it productive ? " 



This is a common type of question. It is easily asked, but very 

 difficult to answer. The first thing to do is to find out why the land 

 is unproductive. The remedy then follows as a natural consequence. 

 The disease must be diagnosed, as the physicians say, before it can 

 be cured. 



If the cause of the unproductiveness is to be discovered, the land 

 itself must be studied carefully, and the history of the field should 

 be known. The man who is on the spot — the farmer himself — 

 has the best opportunity to determine the cause of the trouble. 

 One value of an education and of experiment station teachings is to 

 help the farmer to work out his problems for himself. He can not 

 only solve many of his problems better than the experimenters can, 

 but he derives pleasure from the quest, and great comfort in being 

 able to master his difficulties. 



The farmer who has worn-out land must study and experiment 

 for himself. It is the object of this bulletin to suggest how this may 

 be done. We will specify some of the leading causes of unproduc- 

 tiveness, and then suggest inquiries. 



A. Some Reasons Why Lands Become Impoverished. 



1. Tliey may lack tillage and good care. — It is significant that 

 impoverished lands are usually those which have been neglected. 

 From insufficient or improper tillage, lands become cloddy, hard, 

 unresponsive and foul. In such cases it may be necessary to resort 

 to summer fallow to correct the errors — to bring the land back into 

 prime condition ; but it is rare that well-farmed fields need fallow- 

 ing. See Part II, paragraphs 7, 8, 9, 14, 16, 25. 



95 



