PRICE STABILITY AND SOIL FERTILITY 



ONE of the strongest arguments for more stable prices is the 

 effect on soil fertility. While the best farmers will try to 

 maintain the fertility of their land, no matter what may be the eco- 

 nomic outlook, the bulk of our farming population will not make 

 any serious efforts along this line as long as the price outlook is 

 uncertain. When prices are advancing, the tendency is for mil- 

 lions of acres of farm land to find their way into the hands of spec- 

 ulators and investors, who hold for a rise, and who take no interest 

 whatever in the application of lime and phosphate or the growing 

 of clover. When prices are tending downward, there is a tendency 

 to economi/e to the limit. Even those farmers who normally use 

 fertili/ers are likely to postpone purchases until next year or the 

 year after, in the hope of lower prices. It is only under a system 

 of relatively stable prices that we may expect really effective at- 

 tention to be given to soil fertility problems by the bulk of our 

 farmers. The quicker we can get onto a stable price level, the 

 more effectively will the fertility of our soil be conserved. 



It is common observation that live stock farming maintains the 

 fertility of the soil more effectively than grain farming. In the 

 corn belt, live stock farms ordinarily produce five bushels more 

 corn per acre than grain farms. Two great obstacles to live stock 

 farming are tenancy and price uncertainty. The man of small 

 means who has been farming for himself for only a few years can 

 not afford to take a chance. He does not know whether or not 

 hogs will be at a price next year which will furnish a good market 

 for corn, and he therefore plays safe by breeding only three or four 

 sows, instead of the five or six which he might very well handle. 

 Unquestionably, the farmers in the corn belt would be justified in 

 keeping more live stock if the price of live stock should represent 

 cost of production day by day and month by month. In fact, 

 corn belt farmers, as an average of a five-year period, could prob- 

 ably afford to produce both hogs and cattle at lower relative prices 

 than were customary before the war, if only prices were more 

 nearly stable, if they could feel reasonably sure of getting a price 

 more nearly representing production cost. 



The maintenance of the fertility of our soil is a matter of 

 national concern. In the long run, it is of more vital interest to 

 the people of the cities than to the farmer. Men engaged in indus- 

 trial enterprises should do what they can to favor such adjustment 



