MAN THE CUSTODIAN OF THE SOIL. 3 1 



no longer grow in paying quantities, and then the land has been 

 turned out of cultivation to gain fertility by the same slow 

 process. 



The writer well remembers when the Genessee Valley in New 

 York state was the noted wheat growing centre of America. 

 Gradually the center shifted westward until apparently it has 

 left the United States and is now in Canada. To prove that 

 this condition of wholesale soil robbery has assumed an alarm- 

 ing proportion it is only necessary to mention the fact that one 

 of the principal wheat growing states, that at one time averaged 

 24 bushels per acre, has, for the past four years averaged a trifle 

 under 11 bushels. 



The question of preserving the power of the soil to grow crops 

 is one the importance of which is supreme over all others. 

 Political parties may rise and fall, and from their fall may arise 

 others better suited to the requirements of our changing condi- 

 tions ; terrestial convulsions, fire or financial panic may sweep 

 away the wealth of the nation by hundreds of millions, but with 

 a well tilled fertile soil to draw from those losses can speedily 

 be replaced, for a fertile, responsive soil is the only basis of 

 national prosperity. 



The question naturally arises, "Can the farmer obtain all 

 he needs from his soil and yet maintain and increase its fertil- 

 ity?" That is best answered by reference to what has been 

 done in other lands. The soil of China has been under cultiva- 

 tion for thousands of years and yet it is exceedingly fertile. By 

 statistics we find that the ability of the soil to grow crops in 

 England has been materially increased during the past hundred 

 years. Under natural conditions the earth gradually increases 

 in fertility by the process of growing something upon it, — that 

 is nature's method. No soil is so utterly barren that under 

 ordinary conditions it will not grow something. The moss 

 grows upon the rock on the mountain side and in growing 

 breaks down minute particles of the rock converting it into soil, 

 and in its decay adds to the humus in the soil, so necessary to 

 plant growth, — this year's crop dying gives a more abundant 

 promise of the life that is to follow. 



How then should the farmer till his farm in order to get the 

 most from it and still increase its fertility? It must be under- 



