128 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



give no heed of the morrow. As a nation we 

 have recently sequestered some 200,000,000 

 acres of forests in the Far West and Alaska 

 for the future, but the fringe of hard wood 

 forests that borders the corn-belt on the north 

 must look for its future prosperity to agri- 

 culture. 



It is in this region that we have already 

 seen four million acres reclaimed from its for- 

 est cover in the ten years ending 1910. 



Wisconsin alone offers ten million acres for 

 the settler hardy enough to expend from $15 

 to $50 in labor, in addition to the price of 

 the land (which he must buy), in subduing 

 an acre for the plow. Here in these three 

 states is the original task of the early English 

 in New England, started all over again. With 

 this difference : once the forest cover is cleared 

 the pioneer finds awaiting the plow not the 

 sour, stony hillsides of the East which so set 

 their imprint on the characters of our early an- 

 cestors; but, instead, mellow loess, identical in 

 geological origin with the rich loam of the 

 treeless prairies further south level, deep, and 

 rich in fertility. 



And, in addition, the pioneer in these regions 

 finds another factor in his favor. The region 



