182 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



they agree to "maintain the fertility of their 

 land" by adding artificial ingredients as plant 

 food for to-morrow. On the other hand here 

 is the paper of another financier, from the Far 

 West, where the fruitful acres are few and 

 isolated and capitalized at a high rate, and 

 worked by the last word in intensive culture 

 that is, they are being drained of their innate 

 fertility by the speediest methods known to 

 science. This financier seeks farm mortgages 

 on the basis of what the land actually produces. 

 He arrives at his calculation of the value of 

 land by what it produced yesterday and the 

 day before. He does not inquire what it will 

 produce to-morrow. He is willing to let the 

 to-morrow take care of itself. He has faith, 

 in the face of the theory of doom, that if a 

 given acre can be made to produce a certain 

 magnitude of food to-day, it can be made to 

 do the same to-morrow and the next day 

 and, what is most important to him, at a profit- 

 able rate. 



The National Conservation Commission 

 was established for the task of taking an in- 

 ventory of our national possessions, among the 

 most important of which is the fertility of the 



