CHAPTER TX 



PRACTICAL lUOLOCrY OF ACRTCri/rm A I. PlIODrCTlOX 

 AND CTVIC UTILIZATION OF LAND 



Public prosperity is like a tree : agriculture is its roots ; industry and c«>ni- 

 merce are its brandies and leaves. If the root suffers, tlie leaves fall, tlie 

 In-anches break, and the tree dies. — Chinese saying, fmni Hoi-kins, ''Soil 

 Fertility and Permanent Agriculture " 



In filial analysis civilizations rest mainly u[)(>u agricullui-al 

 efficiency. At least, tins must be increasingly true as civiliza- 

 tion advances. Tn this vital matter it is high time to cast 

 aside all pride and conceit and wake up to a sense of nur 

 low agricultural elliciency as a pe()[)le. In 1907 a total nt 

 20,000 square miles of agricultural land in .Lqian supi)orUMl 

 40,977,003 people, or 2349 people to the s(pn\re mile, wiili 

 less than one dollar per capita excess of agricultural imports 

 over exports. Fertile regions of both Cliina and .lapan sup- 

 port as high as 3840 people per square mil(>. Compare these 

 fio'ures with those for Belgium, the most tlensely poi)ulatcd 

 country in Europe ; here less than 300 pcoi)le per scpuuv 

 mile are supported. The best farming districts of the Lniicd 

 States support about 30 people [»er s(iuare mile. 



Further, in little more than a brief eeniury we have swe[)t 

 over a continent rich in tlu^ aeenmula1e(l fertility ol nr.my 

 thousands of years, and in ignorance have wasted and depleteci 

 ("mincer' rather than '' cultivated ") the soil. As land in one 

 region has been mined out, we have abandoned it and moved 

 to virgin fields, but now, with practically no more lu'w land 

 available, we are forced to turn toward the more civilizing 

 and socially ethical task of pcM-manent American agrieultnre. 



