ECONOMIC SOLUTIONS 111 



Hill, who from his desk reached for a paper in a pigeon- 

 hole, saving, " Here is your plan for betterment, and 

 here is a subscription of $5,000 a year for three years 

 to put it through." The Soo lino of railway and the 

 Great Northern each duplicated his gift. The banks, 

 townships, and the counties contributed, until there was 

 in hand the sum of $43,000 a year for three years. 

 The Association sent to the Minnesota State Agricul- 

 tural College begging the loan of their best man for 

 three years as Director. Professor Thomas N. Cooper 

 was sent. By spring fourteen counties were organized 

 under a force of twenty-six men whose work was to give 

 practical demonstrations in the field, and teach rotation 

 of crops and farm accounting. At the close of the 

 first season's work, Professor Cooper tells the Better 

 Farming Association that what they must get after first 

 is not the betterment of North Dakota's wheat or flax 

 crop, but her ^fan crop. The problem is one of 

 ch^jaeter. 



The churdi must teach that conservation is a moral 

 task ; must sound a clear note against exploitation of 

 the soil as essentially immoral. Farmers know fam- 

 iliarly the common practice of tenants whereby a course 

 of cropping is pursued that will take the utmost pos- 

 sible out of the land within the rental period. They 

 recognize that it is to the disadvantage of the owner, 

 but they look on him as helpless. The church must 

 stress the Old Testament truth, never to be superseded, 

 that the earth is Jehovah's. Ood is tliaf Owner whose 

 fields men are devastating, and He is not hcifjless in the 

 ease. Such preaching, listencil to. will bold men on 

 the land tbrongli llicir prosjicrity. :nnl tn llicir Mcsscd- 

 ness. 



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