SOIL SESSION. 105 



they cover a period during which the area of new land brought under 

 the plow has nearly equalled that in cultivation at its beginning ; that an 

 immense amount of drainage has been done, adding enormously to the 

 potential productiveness of the soil ; that tillage implements have been 

 brought to a state of perfection for beyond that known before, thus 

 further increasing the farmer's control of the soil ; that some thought at 

 least has been given to crop rotation and the use of manures and ferti- 

 lizers — enough in Ohio to lead to an annual expenditure for commercial 

 fertilizers of more than a million and half of dollars during the last 

 decade of this period ; when all these factors, which should make for 

 increase of crop production, are set over against the figures above given, 

 we are compelled to admit that if this is the best that can be done the 

 future outlook for food for the world's rapidly increasing population is 

 indeed a gloomy one. 



But this is not the best that can be done. Scattered throughout this 

 region are many farms that are today producing larger crops than when 

 first reclaimed from forest or prairie, and whose rate of production is 

 steadily increasing ; and when we study the method by which the fertili- 

 ty of these farms has been maintained we find that it has been based upon 

 conservation and increase of the humus supply, a method as old as 

 agriculture, and yet its importance is so seldom realized, and the means 

 of employing it so imperfectly understood, that the prevailing tendency of 

 our agriculture is towards the steady depletion of this supply. 



About the middle of the 40-year period under review the use of 

 chemical or commercial fertilizers became common in Ohio. The de- 

 velopment of the great range industry of the west had caused a heavy 

 decrease in the price of meat producing animals, while the extension 

 of railroads had made it easier to dispose of grain, so that our farmers 

 reduced their live stock, sold their grain instead of feeding it, and at- 

 tempted to maintain the fertility of their fields by the purchase of com- 

 mercial fertilizers. The outcome of this policy has been that the 

 century closed with no more live stock on Ohio farms, based upon poten- 

 tial manure production, than was found there 50 years before, while the 

 area cultivated in cereal crops was three times as great. 



It was soon discovered that, in large sections of the State, fertilizers 

 containing phosphorus would produce a marked increase in the yield of 

 wheat, and especially marked improvement in the appearance of the 

 plant ; phosphated wheat starting earlier in the fall, growing more rapidly 

 and maturing earlier than that not so treated. 



The addition of nitrogen and potassium to the fertilizer \sery ma- 

 terially increased its cost, and, so far as ^_uld be judged bj^' ofoeiva- 



