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of you have noticed between the Bureau of Soils at Wash- 

 ington on the one hand and our own Soil Department, under 

 Dr. Hopkins, on the other. 'Soil fertility can be indefinitely 

 maintained by cultivation and proper rotation of crops,' 

 declares the Bureau of Soils. 'The fertility of our Illinois 

 soils is being gradually depleted,' says Hopkins. 'Each 

 crop that goes out to market carries with it its share of these 

 essential elements. Potassium fortunately is here in sufficient 

 abundance for centuries to come. Nitrogen, the farmer him- 

 self has been taught to replace from the air. But phosphorus, 

 which goes out to market with every grain of corn, and which 

 is already none too abundant in our soils, is being gradually 

 lessened, and can be replaced only by direct addition of 

 phosphate.' 'Cultivate and rotate,' says the Bureau of Soils. 

 'Cultivate, rotate, and rock phosphate,' says Dr. Hopkins. 

 It reminds us of the married man who, while on a journey, 

 received a telegram which read, 'Your mother-in-law is 

 dead. Shall we cremate or bury?' 'Cremate and bury; 

 take no chances/ went back the answer. 



When distinguished doctors differ, who shall decide How- 

 ever, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Hopkins justly 

 points with pride to the fact that thousands of acres of our 

 Illinois soils have had their crops increased under the direc- 

 tion of the Bureau of Soils from fifteen bushels of corn to the 

 acre to forty-five bushels ; to the fact that many of our black 

 soils, under like direction, have had their productiveness in- 

 creased, and that, too, without loss of fertility; to the fact 

 that during the six years between 1902 and 1908, under this 

 same direction, the value of the corn crop of Illinois was in- 

 creased, on the average, more than twenty million dollars 

 annually, above the average crop of the twelve years previous. 

 The weight of argument seems to lie with Dr. Hopkins. 



After all, the remedy proposed is only a temporary remedy. 

 These great beds of phosphate will surely become exhausted. 

 What then? The needs of to-day and to-morrow are provided 

 for ; but what about to-morrow's to-morrow, — the long line of to- 

 morrows of the future? How shall their needs be met? The 



