EDITORIAL. 903 



that will be honoivd (lei)en(ls upon the care and intelli<>enee tjiven 

 to its cultivation. 



" Were any statesman to show us how to add $7,000,000,000 annually 

 to our foreign trade, it would be the sensation of the hour. The way 

 to do this in agriculture is open. Our share in the increase would 

 not be the percentage of profit allowed by successful trading, but the 

 entire capital sum. On the other side stands the fact that the un- 

 appropriated area suited to farm purposes is almost gone, and that 

 we have been for the last century reducing the producing power of 

 the country. Xowhere in the range of national purposes is the reward 

 for conservation of a national resource so ample. Xowhere is the 

 penalt}^ of neglect so threatening." 



In conclusion Mr. Hill briefly indicated the method by which 

 reform may be brought about. " I have endeavored to outline some 

 of the principal issues at stake in the better conservation of our 

 national resources, and especially that one about which all the others 

 revolve and by whose fortunes we shall eventually stand or fall — the 

 land itself. They are for us quite literally the issues of national 

 existence. The era of unlimited expansion on every side, of having 

 but to reach out and seize any desired good, ready provided for us 

 by the hand that laid the foundations of the earth, is drawing to 

 a close. The first task, it seems to me, must be to force home the 

 facts of the situation into the public consciousness; to make men 

 realize their duty toward coming generations exactly as the father 

 feels it a duty to see that his children do not suffer want. In a 

 democracy this is a first essential. In other forms of government 

 one or two great men may have power to correct mistakes and to 

 put in motion wise policies that centuries do not unsettle. A part 

 of the price of self-government is the acceptance of that high office 

 and imperative duty as a whole by the people themselves. They 

 must know", they must weigh, they must act. Only as they form 

 and give effect to wise decisions can the nation go forward. And 

 we should not be here to-day were it not that the principle of a 

 conservation of national resources as the foremost and controlling 

 policy of the United States henceforth is coming to be seen by many, 

 and must be heartily accepted by all, as the first condition not only 

 of continued material prosperity, but also of the perpetuation of 

 free institutions and a government by the people. The work now 

 being done by the Department of Agriculture and the agricultural 

 colleges of the various States furnishes a broad and intelligent 

 foundation upon which to build up a new era of national progress 

 and prosperity. It calls for a wise, generous, and continuing policy 

 on the part of both Federal and State governments." 



Two fundamental elements of reform in the management of our 

 soils were brought out as the result of the conference, and it would 



