1T4 - ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Or, iu other words, nature teaches us that if we are to conserve 

 and improve the fertility of our soils, we must keep them occupied, 

 thus holding them together and preventing the losses that are liable 

 to occur through the far-reaching removal of their constituents 

 by man's suppression of the natural growths. Nature's way results 

 not only in the conservation of soil, in the retention of that which 

 is liable to be lost, but in the improvement of its character, both 

 physical and chemical. Mature is constructive, not destructive; her 

 tendency is constanly towards accumulation. The magnificent for- 

 ests, which formerly occupied large areas of our country, and which 

 still exist in a limited way; the broad prairies, stored with the 

 residues representing the continuous growth of centuries, give abun- 

 dant evidence of this constructive characteristic, and this wealth 

 of forest, and these storehouses of fertility, are due to the beneficent 

 provisions of nature for man's use. 



Let us see for a moment how man has used them. From the 

 beginning of recorded history there has been a tendency, not merely 

 to rob the soil of ifs inherent virtues, but to prevent nature, largely, 

 at least, from contributing to its upbuilding. Many of those coun- 

 tries wliicii, in the vvurlda carlic-r history, were rich lu fertility, and. 

 in the words of the prophet, "flowed with milk and honey," are now 

 barren wastes and deserts, and for no other reason than the lack 

 of observation and the direction of the laws which are involved 

 in the economical production of crops with the accompanying main- 

 tenance of fertility. In Eoman times soil areas had been reduced 

 to such a stage of exhaustion as to cause great anxiety on the part 

 of the Emperors, and in the first and second centuries of the Chris- 

 tian era etl'orts were nutde to protect the soils from exhaustion, and 

 to increase the fertility by drainage, irrigation, rotation of crops and 

 other means. In more recent times the German states, because of 

 the exhaustion of their soils, particularly in the north, were facing 

 the serious problem of food shortage, and were fortunately saved 

 from starvation by the discovery, by Baron von Liebig, of the under- 

 lying principles involved in the growing of plants and in the im- 

 provement of soils. While certain of the German soils were naturally 

 poor, there is no doubt but that the wasteful methods of treatment 

 and the ravages of the nomadic hordes which overran the country in 

 the Middle Ages were responsible for their further impoverishment. 

 It is not necessary for us, however, to turn to ancient times for 

 examples of farm methods which result in the rapid depletion of the 

 soil's fertility and the loss of natural wealth. In all sections of 

 our own couutiT we note evidences of poor management in the treat- 

 ment of our soils, and mnnagement which unfortunately has been 

 encouraged, and is even now encouraged, by a too generous and 

 improvident government in opening new territory, which, in part, 

 relieves the farmer of the moi'al responsibility. 



However, while nature's way is in some particulars quite the op- 

 posite of that which the farmer must follow in order that he may 

 obtain A'alue from his soil, a great difficulty has been encountered 

 in the failure to recognize until recently that nature's ways may 

 continue, and at the same time not interfere, but rather help the 

 farmer in his work. Nature has been antagonized, because the prin- 

 ciples underlying the production of crops and the conservation of 

 the food in his soil has not been understood, and thus the history 



