Part III.] Pond Fish Culture. 205 



CROPS AND SOIL FERTILITY IN OTHER COUNTRIES. 



Why SO much concern about the conservation of soil fer- 

 tility? And that, too, in a new country, when other nations 

 that depend upon soil fertility have existed for centuries? 



Time forbids the discussion of this interesting subject, ex- 

 cept to glance at it for a moment. By examining some re- 

 cently published statistics we learn that the average yield of 

 wheat per acre in Germany for a number of years past has 

 been 29 bushels, and in England for the past ten years it has 

 been 31.39 bushels, while in Kansas it has been less than 15 

 bushels. But what has Germany been doing? asks the statis- 

 tician. She has been importing wheat and other grains rich 

 in fertilizing material and exporting articles like sugar, which 

 takes little or nothing out of the country except sunshine with 

 carbon and water gathered for the most part through plants 

 from the air. England is importing foods and feeds rich in 

 fertilizers from various countries. In England, throughout 

 the agricultural districts, every particle of fertilizing material 

 is not only saved, but carefully stored and put in proper condi- 

 tion to be spread on the cultivated fields at the proper time. 



Some published statistics also go to show that Denmark im- 

 ports wheat, corn, oil cake and bran, but exports such mate- 

 rials as butter, bacon, and eggs. In 1909 the butter alone 

 that Denmark sent to the United Kingdom amounted to 

 197,571,124 pounds, and valued at 30 cents per pound was 

 worth $59,271,307.20.* And this fifty-nine million dollars' 

 worth of butter carried fertilizing elements that would im- 

 poverish the soil of Denmark less than the removal of one 

 thousand tons of Kansas hay would impoverish Kansas soil, 

 which hay, valued at $12 per ton, would amount in comparison 

 to the paltry sum of $12,000; and just such hay as carries 

 from $3 to $5 worth of fertilizer per ton from the soil, and 

 the kind that is being shipped from Kansas farms by the 

 thousands of carloads every year. 



WHY SHOULD WE BE CONCERNED ABOUT THE CONSERVATION OF 



SOIL FERTILITY? 



Because the mass of the people are indifferent and apathetic 

 and do not seem to realize when or where their own interests 

 are at stake, and this too in the face of the fact that the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, and all the state depart- 

 ments of agriculture, and the experiment stations, as well as 

 thousands of writers in the newspapers and magazines, includ- 

 ing scientists and agriculturists of great ability, are continually 

 giving out information concerning the vital importance of con- 

 serving the fertility of the soil. The above-quoted facts, which 

 all point in the same direction, and teach that any soil, no 



* Notes taken from Doctor Robertson's address at Ottawa, Canada, on 

 Conservation of Natural Resources. 



