LIVE STOCK AND SUCCESSFUL FARMING 5 



where the fertility purchased in them is used in growing 

 crops which compete with those sent to these countries 

 from the United States. Thus, the United States be- 

 comes its own competitor. This suicidal policy may be 

 compared with drawing on the principal deposited in a 

 bank from year to year, until all is gone, rather than liv- 

 ing on the interest. 



As a result of this system, the evidences of a waning 

 fertility are everywhere present in localities where the 

 soil has been tilled during successive years. On the ma- 

 jor portion of the lands in the New England, Atlantic and 

 Middle States, good crops cannot now be grown without 

 first dressing them with artificial fertilizers The rich 

 lands of the middle West are giving indications of a grad- 

 ually waning productiveness. Some of the mountain val- 

 leys of the far West are less productive than when they 

 were first tilled. Continue the process of selling the food 

 products grown upon the farm and a time will come when 

 profitable crops cannot any more be obtained from the 

 same. 



Marked depletion in soil fertility is the greatest calam- 

 ity, material in its nature, that can happen to any country. 

 In some respects it is worse than famine, pestilence or 

 war. When carried far enough it leads to abandoned 

 fanjj\s iVi A region of abandoned farms is, in a sense, a 

 ^.^ness, a desert. There are but three ways in which 

 soil depletion may be prevented. These are, first, by 

 maintaining equilibrium in fertility where crops are sold 

 through applying commercial fertilizers; second, by 

 stocking the land to its full capacity, and third, by com- 

 bining the two systems. The occasional burying of green 

 crops may also be introduced as an adjunct to each of 

 these systems. 



There are two strong objections to maintaining 

 equilibrium in fertility through commercial fertilizers 

 alone. These are first, the cost, and second, that they do 

 not materially improve the physical condition of the soil. 



