206 Fish and Game Warden. [Bull. No. 1„ 



difference how rich, may be depleted of its productive quali- 

 ties and eventually become almost worthless — a thing that has 

 happened in many parts of the Old World, and in some places 

 in the eastern parts of our own country — do not seem to have 

 made any very serious impression on the minds of our people^ 

 or at least to have received the intelligent attention and con- 

 sideration of the majority of the people that till the soil in our 

 state, especially in the central and western parts of it. This 

 is all the more strange and difficult to understand when we con- 

 sider that Kansas farmers, as a class, are the best-informed 

 people in the country. 



There seems to be a tremendous and almost inherent tempta- 

 tion for farmers in a new country to become placer or surface 

 miners and to make themselves rich by stripping the soil of its 

 most valuable materials by the quickest methods known to 

 agriculturists and in the shortest time possible. 



Why this concern about conservation of soil fertility? Be- 

 cause we are forced to admit that we as a people are somewhat 

 extravagant, somewhat careless, somewhat indifferent, and not 

 altogether unselfish. We need to be watched and we need to 

 watch ourselves, lest we forget the history of the past and take 

 not sufficient thought for the future. 



Of late we have been noticing the reports that are gradually 

 being published concerning the census returns. Every state, 

 city and village in the Union is losing no time, if the returns 

 justify it, in boasting of its increase in population and its 

 consequent growth and development. Why this tremendous 

 and almost insane interest in the increase of population ? Is it 

 a deep-rooted desire to do something to improve the mental 

 strength, moral soundness and religious condition of humanity, 

 or is it an interest with no broader or deeper foundation than 

 commercialism — the getting of dollars and cents? The sum 

 and substance of twenty answers from business and profes- 

 sional men living in cities would indicate something like this : 

 More population, more city; more city, more business; more 

 business, more dollars and cents ; more dollars and cents, more 

 business. The sum and substance of twenty answers collected 

 from rural districts would indicate the same tendency of 

 thought and spirit. Seventeen answers referred to the value 

 of land, and a summary would run like this : More population, 

 the more valuable becomes both land and land products ; hence^ 

 more money and more business; more valuable the land and 

 land products, more money and more business. 



After having visited the oil, gas, and coal fields in southern 

 Kansas, we were thoroughly convinced that all the oil, gas and 

 coal in the state would be taken out of the earth in a compara- 

 tively short period of time, if the prices only justified the. ac- 

 tion. Double the price and triple the profits on oil and gas and 



