Corn Growers' Association. 161 



our land holders. It is a fact too well known to need comment 

 that our soils are not so fertile as they once were. In fact, with 

 the increasing price of land, coupled with the decreasing productive- 

 ness, the time is already upon us in many parts of the State when 

 a different system of agriculture must be adopted to make farm- 

 ing profitable on the average season. And what is already true 

 of these parts of the State will soon be true in the best parts of 

 Missouri, if we continue to farm as we have been farming. 



The Missouri farmer is in no way to blame for the present 

 conditions, as they are simply the result of economic conditions 

 and of the farmers' early training. Pioneers in any new country 

 have their homes to make and on a virgin soil little thought need 

 be given to the effect of any system of agriculture upon the soil. 

 The important thing with them is to subdue the land and bring 

 it into cultivation. And so it was with our fathers, who in turn 

 taught their methods to the younger generation, and we have all 

 been imbued with the idea that the most important thing is to 

 get crops off the soil with little thought as to the effect of crop- 

 ping on the soil itself. The result has been that our methods 

 have in almost all cases been destructive; that is, they 

 have tended to tear down rather than to build up. It is 

 quite true that so long as a soil is supplied with soluble plant food 

 from year to year this is the most remunerative system so far 

 as the immediate profits are concerned. It is equivalent to skim- 

 ming the cream, as it were, but such a system cannot last. It is 

 now time that we adopt a different system, that we establish a 

 new ideal in our agriculture, if our lands are to continue to yield 

 a satisfactory income, and if the farming class is to continue 

 prosperous. In other words, we have a new conception of the 

 handling of our soil slowly coming into existence — a conception 

 which looks to the building up and to the maintaining of the soil 

 fertility rather than to the tearing down of the soil for the pur- 

 pose of securing an immediate crop, which has been our conception 

 up until recent times. It is quite true that this new idea regard- 

 ing the handling of our lands is being forced upon us, and the 

 only reason that it will appeal to the average farmer is that 

 through this constructive method of agriculture only can he expect 

 large profits from now on. In other words, the man who expects 

 to farm for the next twenty years will find that he will make more 

 money by following the system of keeping up the soil than can 

 possibly be made by the old system. It is well enough to talk of 

 the importance of soil conservation for future generations, but 



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