342 SYSTEMS OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 



investigations just completed by the Bureau of Soils of the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



" Although there are some experiments and some tabulation of results yet 

 to be made, the scientists have gone far enough to evolve a theory that may 

 upset present-day methods of agriculture. 



" The new theory is based on a series of experiments that have been con- 

 ducted during the summer and for several years prior to this season. They 

 intend to show that there are natural agencies at work in the soil that will 

 replenish worn-out ' soil tissues ' just as the worn-out tissues of the body in 

 man are replaced by agencies inside. Only in the case of man there is 

 usually a limit to this process, whereas, in soils, the scientists have observed 

 some wonderful results from soils long ago abandoned as useless. 



" Sensible rotation of crops will produce much better and more lasting 

 results than the artificial fertilization of soils, say the experts." Freeport 

 (Illinois) Daily Bulletin, November 19, 1909. 



"SECRETARY WILSON ON EASTERN FARMING 



" Secretary of Agriculture Wilson has been traveling through some of the 

 Eastern States for the purpose of studying farming conditions, and is quoted 

 as saying: 



" ' It was a beautiful country that we passed through, but the farms gener- 

 ally did not show prosperity. Many of the districts looked depopulated. We 

 saw plenty of children in the villages, but few in the rural regions. The coun- 

 try looked deserted. In fact, interest in agriculture appears to have declined.' 



' ' The soils in this state are not exhausted. In some cases they have be- 

 come unproductive by failure to rotate crops, and again because there has 

 been no change of seed. I am told that many farmers hereabout have planted 

 seed from the same source for fifty years. In the West they know the value 

 of changing seed. We have searched the world for seeds which would flour- 

 ish in all climates and conditions, and we are going to increase our production 

 by making use of them.' " Wallaces' Farmer, November 5, 1909. 



In conclusion it may be stated that the four great fundamental 

 facts of plant nutrition still stand against every test: thus, Sene"- 

 bier's proof of the fixation of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen by 

 photosynthesis, De Saussure's discovery of the presence and abso- 

 lute necessity of mineral plant food, Lawes and Gilbert's proof 

 that the soil must furnish the nitrogen for most plants, and Hell- 

 riegel's discovery of the fixation of free nitrogen by the bacteria 

 of legumes always lead to the same conclusion whenever, wherever, 

 or by whomsoever they are repeated. They are fully recognized 

 as absolutely established facts, at least as well established as the 

 fact that the earth is round. 



