548 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Chinese cultivate their land in small ti-acls with hand tools, and 

 live or exist with great ec()nom3\ They have not depleted their 

 soils by exporting grain and other products that contain fertilizing 

 elements that impoverish the land, and as a result they were able to 

 maintain an existence as a nation longer than anv other. 



It appears that since <he world civilizers have gained a foothold 

 in the ancient empire, their troubles have increased and multiplied in 

 proportion as modern methods of business, transportation, education 

 and civilization has i)rogressed. (Under the convincing power of 

 gold, thirtoen-inch Mausers and gatling guns, and the benign in- 

 fluence of promoters from New York, London, Paris and Berlin have 

 succeeded in converting the heathens to worship the Golden Calf, 

 adopt civilized costumes and cut off their hair). 



The primitive methods, the scrupulous care and economy necessary 

 to maintain a bare existence does not appeal to our race, and that the 

 poor of this country may be forced to adopt in the future similar 

 methods is not a pleasant prospect to anticipate. Instead of preserv- 

 ing their fertility at home like the Chinese, the farmers of this coun- 

 try as soon as land could be made available to produce crops for 

 export, commenced sending them abroad in increasing quantities, 

 often without any profit and often at a positive loss. We take pride 

 and boast of great wealth in our rich lands and the ability to supply 

 other countries with all sorts of farm products. It did not occur 

 to our people that every bushel of grain, every pound of meat, cheese 

 and other products carry away fertility that is absolutely lost to our 

 soil. 



From the statistics we learn that during fifty-five years to 1910, 

 the farmers produced twenty-two billion bushels of wheat, of which 

 five and a half billion were exported as grain and flour. Calculating 

 the fertility loss at four cents a bushel, it amounts to two hundred 

 and ten million dollars. The remainder of the twenty-two billion 

 bushels (four times as much as was exported) was consumed in the 

 country and also lost, except what was fed to stock. Thus we lost 

 upwards of eight hundred million dollars in fertility on the wh \it 

 crop alone, and much more adding other grains, animal produ. . 

 cotton, etc., makes a sum almost startling in the amount. 



We are robbing posterity of their share of Nature's provisions 

 for existence, in exhausting the soil fertility accumulated during 

 ages since the Tertiary period and the beginning of the Quaternary, 

 when the climate became favorable for the support of vegetable and 

 animal life. 



Notwithstanding the industry of American farmers in robbing the 

 soil to produce crops for use and export from this country, accord- 

 ing to an expert in international finance, our debt to foreign coun- 

 tries is $6,.^)75,000,000, W^e exchange for our soil products the essen- 

 tials for existence, the products of other climes, that add nothing to 

 our resources excepting the potash and nitrate imported. We im- 

 port silk, wool, coffee, cocoa, wines, hemp, flax, hops, molasses, sugar, 

 dates, figs, raisins , oranges, olive oil, camphor, rubber, jewels, 

 diamonds anu various other articles for the millions in value of our 

 soil resources. This generation seems dissatisfied with the waste and 

 destruction wrouglit by its inhabitants bur irivite all nations to our 

 feast of abundance to aid in its more rapid exhaustion. 



