306 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



erosion, until now one travels for fifty miles 

 in some instances through fertile fields from 

 the sea to the city that was once a seaport. 

 Japanese fields are ridged into basins to catch 

 the erosion from the surrounding hills. Sur- 

 plus water must pass through their soils in- 

 stead of over them, and in percolating it must 

 leave behind its burden of silt instead of carry- 

 ing more away. 



First the utilization of every foot of avail- 

 able land; then the adaptation of crops to the 

 soil and climate and intensive cultivation by a 

 combination of dry-land methods and irriga- 

 tion; and then maintaining the organic con- 

 tent of the land by a religious conservation of 

 waste. By these means the people of the East 

 manage to live in contentment with no thought 

 of impending doom after more than four thou- 

 sand years. Whatever may be the explanation 

 of the fact that Chinese soils have not worn 

 out, it is certain that sooner or later the West 

 will be forced to adopt similar measures to in- 

 crease the productivity of their acres. We 

 preach that live-stock farming is the highest 

 form of agriculture because it enables us to 

 return the animal excrement to the fields; yet 

 in our cities we are expending huge sums an- 



