LIEBIG 431 



tenant has no compunction in " mining" the fertility of his land- 

 lord's land. 



Liebig. The German agricultural chemist, Liebig, called the 

 attention of the world to the historical and economic significance 

 of soil exhaustion. Existing methods of farming he called soil- 

 robbery, and claimed such methods would in time render the soil 

 completely and forever barren. The phosphorus and potash of 

 the soil, says Liebig, may be called the " capital" with which the 

 farmer carried on his agriculture. With every harvest some of 

 this "capital" is drawn off; the bigger the harvest, the bigger the 

 drain on this "capital." A part of this " capital " is fed to his stock 

 and comes back in manure; a part is sold as grain, live stock, wool, 

 milk, cheese, wood, etc., in the cities, and only a little of this ever 

 gets back to the land. The soil, therefore, annually gets a little 

 poorer by this drain. Finally this "capital" is used up. It is 

 absolutely necessary to return to the soil as much as was taken 

 from it. 



Liebig painted a gloomy picture by describing the past and 

 faded agricultural glories of Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, Greece, 

 Italy, Sicily, and Spain. Liebig's various critics, particularly 

 Conrad, claimed that the agricultural decline of these countries 

 was due to other causes than soil exhaustion, such as deforestation, 

 lack of irrigation, bad government, government price fixing, etc. 2 

 Liebig claims that the soil determines the history of nations. 

 Conrad claims that the form of government the political and 

 social regulations have more influence on agriculture than on 

 trade and industry; have more influence than climate or the method 

 of treating the soil; so that agriculture reaches its greatest perfec- 

 tion not in those countries most favored by nature, but where 

 the governments are best. 



When one considers the millions of tons of commercial fertilizers 

 now being used every year in our Eastern States and the scores 

 of pages of State laws to "regulate" this traffic, the reality of the 

 problem of soil exhaustion becomes apparent, whatever the merits 

 of the Liebig-Conrad controversy. For soil fertility is like a bank 

 account there is a limit to the amount that may be drawn out. 



2 Conrad, J. Liebig's Ansicht von der Bodenerschopfung und ihre ges- 

 chichtliche, statistische und nationalokonomische Begriindung Kritish gepriift. 

 Jena, 1864. Concerning Spain we read, " Das Aergste war aber unbedingt, dass 

 dem Bauer selbst der Preis bestimmt wurde, zu welehem er sein Korn verkaufen 

 durfte, und dies geschah bereits seit der Regierung Alphons X und wurde erst 

 im vorigen Jahrhundert aufgehpben," p. 81. " Cette loi decourageait le fermier 

 et ajoutait encore a son apathie naturelle." Weiss II, 96. 



