XXI 



WHAT IS BECOMING OF OUR SOILS? 



IT is well known to every student of statistical his- 

 tory, and to every practical farmer who has had ac- 

 cess at some time or other to what is known as virgin 

 soils, that the natural fertility of a soil rapidly disap- 

 pears under the methods of American agriculture which 

 have heen chiefly in vogue. If one of the theories of 

 the Department of Agriculture is true, namely, that 

 poverty of soil is due to the decay of the organic mat- 

 ter of previous crops leaving poisonous bodies behind, 

 then the virgin soils of this country ought to be at a 

 maximum of poverty when they are first cultivated. 

 If they be of the forest, they have in them the remains 

 of unnumbered years of forest decay. If they be 

 prairie, they have the remains of unnumbered years of 

 root and grass decay. Theoretically, therefore, if the 

 above-mentioned theory is correct they should have 

 reached the minimum of production. On the contrary, 

 such soils always have the maximum of production. It 

 is difficult to keep a crop from growing after the forest 

 has been removed or the prairie sod has been turned. 

 The agriculture of the past has been chiefly the ex- 

 ploitation of these stores of natural fertility. 



It is pertinent to ask, how has this depression of soil 

 fertility, as shown in the diminishing crop production, 

 been secured ? There are three principal methods 

 which are patent: first, the natural fertility of the soil 



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