CHAPTER VII 



THE SOIL AS AN IMMUTABLE 

 ASSET 



"The soil is the one indestructible , im- 

 mutable asset of the Nation. It is the one re- 

 source that cannot be exhausted; that cannot 

 be used up. It may be impaired by abuse, 

 but not destroyed/' 



THIS is the prommciamento of the federal 

 Bureau of Soils of the Department of Agri- 

 culture at Washington. It was first published 

 in 1908, and was met with a storm of criticism. 



There is no middle ground. The hypothesis 

 put forward by Director Milton Whitney, 

 Doctor Frank K. Cameron, Doctor Oswald 

 Schreiner, Edmund C. Shorey, and other 

 scientists, with the authority of the United 

 States government at their back, states flatly 

 that soils do not wear out. On the other hand 

 the whole system of teaching in our agricul- 

 tural colleges is founded on the theory that 



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