of the abundance of resources on every hand no suspicion 

 could enter these settlers' minds that this might not be a 

 permanent country. 



But eventually came a change; a decline of farming as a 

 mode of livelihood and of rural life as a mode of living; a 

 period of gradually increasing distress, accelerated by the 

 Great War which stimulated activity and hastened collapse. 



War prices led the farmers of the Valley to put every 

 ounce of pressure on the land. During the war they were 

 led to believe that it would be unpatriotic to do otherwise. 

 Every possible cleared acre was plowed under. Plowing 

 was extended farther up the hillsides, and grazing was intensi- 

 fied on the remaining sod lands and openings. Many young 

 farmers purchased land from retired owners at high prices, 

 and others bought and sold. Everyone went heavily into 

 debt, for credit was easy and many of the country bankers 

 thought the high prices would last forever. 



That was a disastrous prophesy. All of what happened 

 is not even yet understood. Forces in the Nation outside 

 the Valley, for which its people could not be held responsible, 

 combined with forces within the Valley for which they could 

 be held responsible, caused a huge decline in agricultural 

 income, and distress appeared everywhere among its people. 



As for the destructive forces within the Valley for which 

 its people were responsible, they came to understand them. 

 They came to understand, among other things, that they had 

 been robbers of the land by their farm practices had been 

 robbing themselves, their children, and their children's 

 children. 



They realized that one reason they were not receiving the 

 accustomed income from their efforts was that the yield per 

 acre had been declining. They had thought it was because 

 of declining fertility caused by the plant food taken up and 

 carried away by the crops, and that there was nothing to do 

 for that except ever more fertilization and more expense. 

 But they learned that it was something worse than that; 

 they had been robbing the fields of their fertile topsoils, had 

 been encouraging the rain, snow, and wind to carry them 



77 



