INTRODUCTION 
TO FIRST EDITION 
of our farm lands is the present-day menace of 
our country. Increasing population, decreasing 
fertility of our soils and fewer acres of new land opened 
for settlement, brings us each day nearer the solution of 
the problem, how shall we feed our people? 
The answer to the question is the “ Renovation of 
Worn-out Soils” so that they will again produce as they 
did when our forefathers subdued them from the wilder- 
ness that held them in subjection for centuries. 
Renovation of the Soil— what does it mean? 
It means to make the soil over again, to restore it to 
freshness and vigor — to renew it. 
Too many American farmers have gone upon the 
principle that their land will never wear out. Their 
fathers entered upon land covered with the virgin forest, 
rich in all the elements that make good soil; the forests 
were subdued and the land brought into cultivation; 
bountiful crops were produced because the soil was well 
supplied with humus, nitrogen, potash and other elements 
found in first class soils. Year after year bumper crops 
were gathered from these lands, the pioneer died, and 
his sons and sons’ sons continued to farm these lands in 
It 
. BANDONED farms and decreasing production 
