WHAT IS BECOMING OF OUR SOILS? 225 



growth of crops can be instituted, and with a judicious 

 addition of lime, clover and other leguminous crops 

 can be made to grow and thus furnish one of the most 

 expensive of the elements of the fertilizing materials, 

 namely, nitrogen, in a state suitable for plant life. 

 There is no reason, therefore, to despair of agriculture 

 because of the improper method by which it has been 

 conducted in the past years. Every person who en- 

 gages in that honorable profession at the present time 

 should be imbued with the idea that he has come into 

 the presence of wrongs which are to be righted. Besti- 

 tution must be made. The land must be respected. 

 It must be restored to its pristine fertility. 



