12 INTRODUCTION TO FIRST EDITION 
the same manner and with the same methods as they 
were farmed by the pioneer. 
It did not seem possible to the sons and sons’ sons 
that these rich lands could ever reach the point of ex- 
haustion, or that the time would come when they must 
be farmed and treated in a different manner than when 
they were first cleared and planted, yet that very time 
has come to millions of acres of American soils. 
Millions of acres of our land that once produced from 
seventy-five to one hundred bushels of corn per acre will 
not now produce twenty bushels to the acre. These 
acres have gone into “ agricultural bankruptcy.” 
Being confronted with this condition, what can we do 
to remedy it? Is there a remedy and is the remedy a 
sure and quick one? The remedy must be quick, for we 
cannot wait fifty years as England did to restore our 
soils. 
The purpose of this book is to give the remedy and to 
prove that it is a sure and quick one. 
