PERMANENT SOIL FERTILITY 



which describes his farm, the farmer can refer to the map of 

 his county and learn the types of soil on his farm and their 

 exact boundaries. In fact, these maps are so accurate that one 

 had better trust them than his own judgment in the purchase 

 of a farm. I know I would a great deal rather. In these re- 

 ports he will find the chemical composition of his soils — of 

 the surface soil, of the subsurface, and even of the subsoil. 

 Not only that, he can learn the treatment which these differ- 

 ent kinds of soil require for the maximum production of crops. 

 I might say that before the soil survey was begun, before the 

 farmers knew how to distinguish between the soil of one farm 

 and that of another, there was great confusion. For instance, 

 if a farmer was recommended to put potassium on his land 

 he might do so and get immediate results, a thing which has 

 been done, but that fact would be published far and wide — 

 not the fact that potassium should be put on peat land but 

 that potassium was a good fertilizer. Then one hundred others 

 would apply potassium and get no result. But now if a 

 farmer has peaty land he knows what to apply to get results 

 in increased yields but he does not apply potassium to sandy 

 or clay land. He knows enough to distinguish between the 

 one and the other. 



The best part of all this soil investigation is this : that as 

 a result of it the farmers themselves are putting into practice 

 the very things that Doctor Hopkins has recommended, and 

 are getting identically the same results that he got on the ex- 

 perimental fields. What does this mean? The flight of 

 imagination cannot express what it means. It means, in a 

 word, increased crops to the farmer, but that is not all. It 

 means more food for those who are not farmers. Every ex- 

 cess bushel of wheat that is produced by you on your farm 

 means the pushing back farther and farther of the famine area. 



So firm was Doctor Hopkins in his conviction that the 

 poorest land could be made to yield large and profitable crops 

 that he hunted out the most barren piece of land in the state 



35 



