No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 483 



can maintain themselves on the elements inherent in the soil. Virp^in 

 soils always contain more or less available plant food in projjortion 

 to its derivation, A^et tlieie is none inoxlianstihlo altlionjijh it may yield 

 for considerable periods remnnerative crops; it will evontnally cease 

 to prodnce paying crops. The alluvial lan<ls — periodically over- 

 flowed — those derived from limestone and chalk with that from vol- 

 canic activities are most valuable, while the rocky, sandy, shaly or 

 those consisting- of very tine silt and tenacious clays are neither so 

 lasting and more exi)ensive to maintain. 



The early settlers already knew the best soils, selecting such as were 

 heavily timbered or along alluvial bottom lands where, with little 

 etiort, large crops could be chea])ly ]>ro(luced for export such as ce- 

 reals for milling as well as for distillation. Whenever land owners 

 found the soil under cultivation less productive than it was originally, 

 the heavily timbered hai'dwood forests were cleared and wastefully 

 destroj'ed, or used up in building houses and barns with the choicest 

 timber that would now be worth fortunes. The great bai-ns and other 

 buildings on the farms in the most productive sections testify the 

 wealth taken from the land during the period when the farmers were 

 capitalists loaning mone5% donating land for canals and railroads 

 and investing in stocks and bonds which was often the last seen of 

 their money, because of reorganization and receiverships. 



It is also to be observed that in many parts of Pennsylvania, from 

 the Delaware to the Potomac rivers, the valuable estates and fertile 

 farms are now in the hands of absentee landlords, residing in towns 

 and cities, engaged in some business that affords enough means to 

 support the farms, display their wealth and their ignorance about 

 agriculture, appealing to the State for the aid of rural uplifters, ex- 

 tension agents and specialists to help them make a big showing in 

 the magazines and the press in general. 



Under the system of finance, government and political rule, it 

 seldom happens that actual farmers acquire means to purchase addi- 

 tional land, while those engaged in commerce, banking, law or in 

 politics — provided the latter can stick to an office for terms of ten 

 to twenty years, at salaries ranging from three to six thousand dol- 

 lars, drawing on public funds to the extent of sixty to eighty thou- 

 sand dollars — can invest in country estates and live retired as promi- 

 nent agriculturists. Tenantry is on the increase; real farmers 

 becoming tenants or driven into less productive sections where land is 

 cheap to eke out an existence under adverse conditions. 



Thus modern history is only repeating ancient history when the 

 so-called nobility, or in plain terms the criminal cunning gained 

 control of wealth created by labor, resulting in the decline of all 

 the ancient governments being reduced to absolute proverty through 

 exhausting the soil and the maintenance of an aristocracy, with im- 

 mense military force to overawe their subjects. It is possible to post- 

 pone the inevitable with modern methods in the discovery of mineral 

 fertilizers and earlier wastes, but it is questionable how long the 

 supplies of moderate priced artificial fertilizers can be obtained to 

 supply the quantity necessary to restore what is removed with crops. 

 Chemistry may possibly come to relieve the future by combining the 

 elements abundant in nature by preparing capsules of protein, carbo- 

 hydrates and fats in condensed form to sustain future generations 

 of inhabitants in countless numbers a century hence. The only 



