SOIL SAVING SIMPLE METHODS OF PRESERVING THE 

 FERTILITY OF AGRIGULTURAL LANDS. 



BY LEWIS C. BURNETT. 



EDITOR IRRIGATION AGE, CHICAGO, ILL. : 



Dear Sir: I take the liberty of handing you copy of an article 

 written by Lewis C. Burnett, of Otoe county, Nebraska, a practical 

 and successful farmer, with an experience covering more than a quar- 

 ter of a century in the state of Nebraska. 



This article, as you will note, relates to soil saving by the sim- 

 plest and commonest methods, and yet the results as realized by Mr- 

 Burnett and set forth in the article are so remarkable that it is a won- 

 der more work of this kind has not been done. My only object in 

 sending you this is to promote the agricultural interests of our state, 

 and you are at liberty to use part or all of Mr. Burnett's article. 



In justice to Mr. Burnett I would say that he prepared the article 

 for the local home paper, and after hearing it read I prevailed upon 

 him to let me have it copied and sent to some of our leading journals 

 for publication. It has not been published in any paper or periodical 

 up to this time. Very respectfully yours, 



A. G. WOLFENBARGER, 



President Nebraska Irrigation Association. 



The founder of the Orange Judd Farmer once said: "If the east- 

 ern farms could have a few inches of Nebraska soil the farmers there 

 would be rich." Yet we are giving the Missouri river, such years as 

 this, enough soil to make an eastern state rich for a century. 



I claim that the loss in soil to Kansas and Nebraska this year far 

 exceeds the loss by drouth last year. 



One man asked me, "What if you do lose some or all of the black 

 soil, there is plenty more soil to plow." Our subsoil is rich and with 

 plenty of manure and good cultivation can be made to produce good 

 crops eventually. But he did not know it has taken ages to prepare 

 the black soil for man's use and the surface soil is to the earth what 

 cream is to the milk; if the cream is taken off you have skim milk, or 

 "blue John," and it will make more than one John blue, who has to 

 cultivate poor washed soil. Always remember that good soil responds 

 nobly to every effort spent upon it. It will stand more drouth, more 

 rain, more heat and cold, and will not require near the work upon it 

 to produce a good crop as the poor soil will require to produce a poor 

 crop. Poor soil has no mercy on a lazy man. 



There has not been a heavy rain during the past fourteen years 

 during daylight hours, when I have been at home, that I have not put 

 on my rubber coat and boots and gone out and worked to save my 



