432 POOD SUPPLY PROBLEM 



Soil Destruction Question. Far more serious than soil ex- 

 haustion is soil destruction. The three chief ways in which soil 

 destruction is brought about are over-cultivation, over-grazing 

 and deforestation. These lead to erosion by wind and water. 

 Deforestation has come about in various ways, such as destruc- 

 tion of the forest by farmers for the purpose of securing farms, 

 careless lumbering methods, and forest fires. Steep hillsides, 

 deforested by farmers or logging companies, often have their soil 

 all swept away by the washing of the rain. When President 

 Roosevelt launched his campaign for conservation he issued to 

 Congress really to the country at large an illustrated message 

 showing whole valleys in China, once populous with teeming 

 cities, now a dreadful desert, due to the complete destruction 

 of the soil. Torrential rains, at certain seasons, wash down the 

 hillsides, causing bowlders to fill the valleys. In the United 

 States there are doubtless millions of acres suffering to a lesser or 

 greater degree from the damages of deforestation. When the soil 

 is gone and the bare rock exposed, this land is doubtless rendered 

 barren forever. 



The Soil and the Man on the Soil. A study of the literature 

 dealing with soil exhaustion and soil improvement, and an obser- 

 vation of the methods used by successful farmers lead to the con- 

 clusion that the fundamental question is not the soil, but the man 

 on the soil. Some farms show a steady decline in fertility, until 

 a different person takes charge. Under new management a " worn- 

 out" farm becomes again productive. And what is more signifi- 

 cant, under such management such a farm often proves to be a 

 case of "increasing returns" on the investment. 



For the purposes of illustrating in a concrete manner the sig- 

 nificance of the human factor in the "soil-exhaustion" problem, 

 two examples will be given from "run-down" New York farms 

 which were rehabilitated by able management. The first example 

 is that known as the M. J. English farm in Broome County, 

 southern New York. The second is known as the T. E. Martin 

 farm, in Monroe County, northwestern New York. The informa- 

 tion concerning these farms is taken from two bulletins published 

 by the United States Department of Agriculture. 3 



3 Burritt, M. C., and Barren, John H., An Example of Successful Farm 

 Management in Southern New York. Bulletin No. 32, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. Burritt, M. C., A Successful New York Farm. Farmers' 

 Bulletin 454, United States Department of Agriculture. 



