HISTORICAL RESUME 35 



encing forty or fifty years of a mining process 

 by which the main elements of soil fertility have 

 been mined out of them, are now in the possession 

 of men and their families that possess the same 

 broken, discouraged spirit as the " Highlanders" 

 of the South who do not seem to be able to lift 

 themselves above their environment and change 

 the condition of their soil. 



And as our soils continue to grow poorer and 

 poorer this condition of our people will become 

 more acute and spread like an infectious disease. 



But what has caused or brought about this 

 alarming condition? Greed, environment and 

 preaching of false agricultural doctrines. The 

 farmer of the past found the soil rich in all the 

 elements that make a fertile soil. He scorned 

 the study of scientific agriculture. His policy 

 was to haul to the barn everything that grew upon 

 his soil. With match he burned the fertilizing 

 by-products of his farm. He forgot that soil is 

 a " living, breathing thing, " and like his beasts 

 must be fed and groomed. His main thought was 

 the dollars that could be produced from his farm 

 products. Is it any wonder then that his soil 

 was strangled with its wasted fertility? 



We have shown how the pioneer found our rich 

 soils, rescued them from the wilderness and sub- 

 jected them to the growing of crops for gain. 

 These soils were rich in every element necessary 

 to a fertile soil which would produce a hundred- 

 fold for a generation or more, and so these pioneer 

 farmers did not see the need of soil conservation. 

 They became imbued with the false notion that 

 their soils would never wear out. Under this 



