322 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



June 



years ago a Swedish geologist prepared for 

 his government a report, stating that the 

 entire supply of the iron ore in the United 

 States would be exhausted within the pres- 

 ent century. The United States Geo- 

 logical Survey declared this an over- 

 statement; but here is the conclusion 

 of its own report. I quote the official pub- 

 lished document : "Assuming that the de- 

 mand for iron ore during the present cen- 

 tury may range from 50,000,000 to 100,000,- 

 000 tons per year, the Lake Superior dis- 

 trict would last for from 25 to 50 years 

 more, if it supplied the entire United States. 

 But counting on the known reserves else- 

 where in the United States the ore will 

 last for a much longer period, though, of 

 ■course, it must necessarily show a gradual, 

 but steady increase in value and in cost of 

 mining, along with an equally steady de- 

 crease in grade." The most favorable view 

 of the situation forces the conclusion that 

 iron and coal will not be available for com- 

 mon use on anything like present terms be- 

 fore the end of this century ; and our indus- 

 trial, social and political life must be read- 

 justed to meet the strains imposed by new 

 conditions. Yet we forbid to our consumers 

 access to the stores of other countries, 

 while we boast of our increased exports, of 

 that material for want of which one day the 

 nation must be reduced to the last extrem- 

 ity. 



We now turn to the only remaining re- 

 source of man upon this earth, which is the 

 soil itself. How are we caring for that, 

 and what possibilities does it hold out to 

 the people of future support? We are only 

 i<-<Miining to feel the pressure upon the land. 

 The whole interior of this continent, aggre- 

 gating more than 500,000,000 acres, has 

 been occupied by settlers within the last 

 50 years. What is there left for the next 50 

 years? Excluding arid and irrigable areas, 

 the latter limited by nature, and barely 

 enough of which could be made habitable in 

 each year to furnish a farm for each immi- 

 grant family, the case stands as follows : In 

 1906 the total unappropriated public lands 

 in the United States consisted of 792,000,000 

 acres. Of this area the divisions of Alaska, 

 Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Mon- 

 tana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming 

 contained 195,700,000 acres of unsurveyed 

 land. Little of Alaska is fitted for general 

 agriculture, while practically all of the rest 

 is semi-arid, available only for grazing or 

 irrigation. We have (subtracting these to- 

 tals) 50,000,000 acres of surveyed and 36,- 

 500,000 acres of unsurveyed land as our 

 actual remaining stock. And 21,000,000 

 acres were disposed of in 1907. How long 

 will the remainder last? No longer can we 

 say that "I'licle Sam has enough to give us 

 ah a farn- 



equally '. f'patening is the change in qual- 

 it}'. ^Therc are two ways in which the pro- 

 ductive powe.r of the earth is lessened ; first 

 by ttosion and the sweeping away of the 



fertile surface into streams and thence to 

 the sea, and, second, by exhaustion through 

 wrong methods of cultivation. The former 

 process has gone far. Thousands of acres 

 in the Eas'. and South have been made unfit 

 for tillage. North Carolina was, a century 

 ago, one of the great agricultural states of 

 the country and one of the wealthiest. To- 

 day as you ride through the South you see 

 everywhere land gullied by torrential rains, 

 red and yellow clay banks exposed where 

 once were fertile fields; and agriculture re- 

 duced because its main support has been 

 washed away. Millions of acres, in places 

 to the extent of one-tenth of the entire ara- 

 ble area, have been so injured that no in- 

 dustry and no care can restore them. 



Far more ruinous, because universal and 

 continuing in its effects, is the process of 

 soil exhaustion. It is creeping over the 

 land from East to West. The abandoned 

 farms that are now the playthings of the 

 city's rich or the game preserves of pat- 

 rons of sport, bear witness to the melan- 

 choly change. New Hampshire, Vermont,, 

 northern New York, show long lists of 

 them. In Western Massachusetts, which 

 once supported a flourishing agriculture, 

 farm properties are now for sale for half 

 the cost of the improvements. Professor 

 Carver, of Harvard, has declared, after a 

 personal examination of the country, that 

 "agriculture as an independent industry, 

 able in itself to support a community, does 

 not exist in the hilly parts of New Eng- 

 land." 



The same process of deterioration is af- 

 fecting the farm lands of western New 

 York, Ohio and Indiana. Where prices of 

 farms should rise by increase of population, 

 in many places they are falling. Between 

 1880 and 1900 the land values of Ohio 

 shrank $60,000,000. Official investigation of 

 two counties in central New York dis- 

 closed a condition of agricultural decay. 

 In one land was for sale for about the cost 

 of improvements, and 150 vacant houses 

 were counted in a limited area. In the oth- 

 er the population in 1905 was nearly 4,000 

 less than in 1855. 



Practically identical soil conditions exist 

 in Maryland and Virginia, where lands sell 

 at from $10 to $30 an acre. In a hearing 

 before an Industrial Commission, the chief 

 of the Bureau of Soils of the Department 

 of Agriculture said : "One of the most im- 

 portant causes of deterioration, and I think 

 I should put this first of all, is the method 

 and system of agriculture that prevails 

 throughout these states. Unquestionably 

 the soil has been abused." The richest re- 

 gion of the West is no more exempt than 

 New England or the South. The soil of 

 the West is being reduced in agricultural 

 potency by exactly the same processes which 

 have driven the farmer of the East, with all 

 his advantage of nearness to markets, from 

 the field. 



Wihin the last forty years a great part of 



