NECESSARY PEEPAEATION 103 



When lie has mastered these he is ready to add to 

 his knowledge the knowledge gained by his own 

 experience. He is then duly qualified to work and 

 successfully garner in the fields of law and medi- 

 cine. 



The same is as true of the business of farming. 

 The farmer of the past scorned the study of 

 farming as taught by book, history, chemistry or 

 any scientific method. He had at his command 

 a soil rich in all the elements of fertility for na- 

 ture had made it so, and it came into his posses- 

 sion in its virgin richness. He had but to plant 

 the seed and give the growing plants but little 

 cultivation, and they produced a burden of crops, 

 and unfortunately for the business of farming, 

 this process could be and was continued for a 

 generation or more at least long enough to im- 

 bue the farmer of the past with the false notion 

 that any one could farm, and that no scientific 

 knowledge was required upon the part of the 

 farmer. It was this very state of affairs that has 

 led to the plunder and exhaustion of our soils, 

 that has made the abandoned, worn and worn-out 

 farm a part of our farm economics. 



But the day of reckoning has come. We of this 

 generation are reaping the follies perpetrated by 

 our pioneer farmers. We find the fertility of 

 our soils waning or already exhausted. We are 

 confronted by "a condition and not a theory." 

 To continue in the way our father farmers cul- 

 tivated their farms means death and decay just 

 as certain as death and decay is written on every 

 living thing. 



We must admit that we are facing a serious 



