EDITORIAL. 1 03 



is estimated that at the present rate of growth this country will have 

 a i)oi)iihition of loO,000,000 less than twenty years hence, and tliat 

 Avithin forty-four years Ave shall have to meet the wants. of more 

 than 1^00,000,000 people. It is stated as a mathematical fact that 

 within tAventy years, under present conditions, our Avheat crop will 

 not be sufficient for home consumption and seed, without leaving a 

 bushel for export. 



These facts Avere presented, not in the spirit of the pessimist, but to 

 enforce the necessity for action Avhich Avill check the present tendency 

 and prcA'Cnt further damage. Diversification in farming was urged — 

 the practice of rotation of crops, of stock raising, and of more inten- 

 si\"e tillage, Avhicli will make our lands more productiA^e Avhile it 

 maintains their fertility; and with this done it was concluded that 

 our possibilities Avould be equal to the demands. " If not another 

 acre were to be redeemed from the wilderness," he says, " if the soil 

 Avere treated kindly and intelligently, and if industry Avere distribu- 

 ted duly, and po])ular attention were concentrated upon the best 

 possible utilization of the one unfailing national resource, there Avould 

 be produced all necessary food for the Avants of, in round numbers, 

 650,000,000. But this means such study and labor to raise produc- 

 tion to its highest terms as liaA^e entered scarcely at all as yet into 

 the American comprehension." 



The remedy, Mr. Hill suggests, lies in agricultural experimentation 

 and popular demonstration. " Let the zeal for discoA'erA', for experi- 

 ment, for scientific adA^ancement that have made the last century 

 one of multiplied wonders, focus themselves upon the problems of 

 the oldest of sciences and arts." Let the Government establish model 

 farms in every rural Congressional district, " later perhaps in every 

 county in the agricultural States," in order to illustrate better methods 

 of farming to maintain fertility. " Let the Department of Agricul- 

 ture show exactly Avhat can be done on a small tract of land by proper 

 cultiA'ation, moderate fertilizing, and due rotation of crops." 



Whether or not we agree Avith the exact form which this relief 

 should take, Ave must agree that the remedy lies along the lines of 

 agricultural experimentation to furnish the basis for reform, and 

 of popular instruction and demonstration to bring the facts forcefully 

 before the people. And all will agree Avith his assertion that there 

 must be " a readjustment of national ideas such as to place agriculture 

 and its claims to the best intelligence and the highest skill that the 

 country affords in the very fore front." 



The problems of soil fertility are foremost at many of our experi- 

 ment stations at the present time, and a considerable share of the 

 projects planned to be iuA-estigated under the Adams fund center 

 around this subject. The fundamental importance of the subject is 



