92 THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 



great discovery; viz., that lands that were worn out 

 and had become worthless had not done so because the 

 food elements therein had been exhausted ; but because 

 certain plants, called weeds, exuded or exhaled certain 

 substances, deleterious, if not poisonous, to other 

 plants, and especially to those plants chiefly propagated 

 for human food. To illustrate: Professor Hopkins 

 in the work referred to quotes from Bulletin No. 22, 

 Bureau of Soils, United States Department of Agri- 

 culture : " It appears further that practically all soils 

 contain sufficient plant food for good crop yields, that 

 this supply will be indefinitely maintained." Pro- 

 fessor Hopkins again quotes as from Bulletin 55, Bu- 

 reau of Soils (Soils of the United States, February, 

 1909), as follows: "The soil is the one indestructi- 

 ble, immutable asset that the nation possesses. It is 

 the one resource that cannot be exhausted; that can- 

 not be used up, etc." He further quotes from a hear- 

 ing before the Congressional Committee on Agricul- 

 ture, 1908, in which a representative, Mr. Cameron, 

 of the Department of Agriculture, is questioned as 

 follows : 



The Chairman. " Then I come back again to the 

 question, Why is it necessary, or is it in your judgment 

 necessary, ever at any time to introduce fertilizing 

 material into any soil for the purpose of increasing 

 the amount of plant food in that soil." 

 Mr. Cameron. " Not in my judgment." 

 In view of facts disclosed by the foregoing tables, 

 and with the history and present condition of agricul- 

 ture in India, China and elsewhere, as well as what 

 has taken place all along our Atlantic Coast, it seems 



