214 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



generatioDs may not be impaired. This natural source of wealth 

 is without exception the greatest economic endowment of the 

 American people, furnishing not only food for man and beast but 

 a vast amount of the raw materials used iu our manufacturing in- 

 dustries. The value of the wealth derived from our mines amounts 

 to a fabulous sum annually, but from their products neither man 

 nor beast is fed or clothed. The value of other non-agricultural 

 products is also great, but even in the aggregate the wealth derived 

 from these sources is insignificant when compared with that wrested 

 by the toiling farmer from the soil with the aid of the rains iind 

 the sunshine. 



The resources of the soil are not fixed quantities as are those of 

 the mines, the quarries, etc., but are ever ready to respond with the 

 creation of wealth upon being called to do so by the farmer through 

 intelligent utilization. They are not decreasing sources of iucome 

 as are the mines and quarries, which, when once worked and the ore 

 and rock are never restored, but under business-like and scientific 

 management they are capable of furnishing not only annual but an- 

 nually increasing profits. 



The American people have not realized the vastness and import- 

 ance of these w'onderful resources. They have as yet scarcely begun 

 to utilize them as they may and will be utilized in future years. Land 

 has been cheap and the cultivation of new aeries has been np])er- 

 most iu the minds of the husbandman, rather than the full utiliza- 

 tion of the old ones. In a few places, near some of our great 

 cities, intensive cultivation and cropping has been given the soils 

 with resulting immense yields and large profits, but by far the 

 greater portion of our agricultural domain has never been called on 

 for anything like the intensive systems of agriculture common in 

 the densely populated countries of the Old World and extensive 

 systems of farming have always been erajiloyed in the utilization of 

 these vast dormant resources. The soils of this country have not 

 been required in the past to show to their full extent the cajjabili- 

 ties which they possess and their ability to produce wealth for man- 

 kind. In many if not in most cases, it is safe to say, that these 

 valuable resources given us by nature have not only been asked 

 or required to do their best, but have been neglected, misused, and 

 robbed rather than carefully utilized by the past and present genera- 

 tions or conserved for the generations that are to follow. Secretary 

 ^Vilson said in a recent address: ''The people of the United States 

 have wasted their inheritance of land and woods, of fish in the 

 waters, and minerals in the earth. The soil has been robbed in the 

 East and South and West." It has not been necessary in the past 

 for the soils to produce more than they have been producing, 

 neither has it been necessary to exhaust and rob this natural source 

 of wealth just because it can not strike back. The markets have 

 been fully supplied and sometimes even oversupplied and prices 

 have consequently sometimes fallen below the cost of production. 

 But at present, in spite of our enormous production of wealth from 

 the soil, some of the food products are extremely high in price. 



The needs of the rapidly increasing population of the state and 

 nation have, in the past, been largely met and supplied by the 

 cultivation of an increased acreage in our farm lands. In fact, as 



