A SYSTEM OF PERMANENT AGRICULTURE 



RALPH ALLEN, Delavan 



N ORDER to understand better the system of soil fertility, 

 as advocated in Illinois, one should be somewhat familiar 

 with the motives which inspired Dr. Cyril G. Hopkins, its 

 originator and promulgator. The ultimate goal toward 

 which Dr. Hopkins labored was the solution of the problem 

 of an unlimited food supply for man, even when his num- 

 bers were constantly increasing. He realized that the decadence of 

 empires and of civilization was primarily due to underfed, underde- 

 veloped peoples, caused by the depletion of the soil's power to produce 

 sufficient food ; and that the powerful people of the earth were those 

 only who lived upon the new and unexhausted lands. 



The progressive movement of civilized man has been westward 

 new lands have been occupied and exhausted until the circle of ex- 

 ploitation of the earth is about completed. Dr. Hopkins realized that 

 the decadence of man as a civilized race must therefore follow, unless 

 a system of soil renewal could be discovered whereby the effect of 

 man's occupancy of the land could be reversed from soil destroying to 

 soil building. In this process he knew that the farmer must be the 

 active agent ; therefore the farmer must receive the first consideration. 

 The farmer must prosper. He must realize a compensation for his 

 labor comparable with that of other industries. His business should 

 pay sufficiently to bring back quickly the money paid out in the pro- 

 cess of renewing the soil. In other words, agriculture to exist must 

 be profitable. Dr. Hopkins' object, therefore, was to bring about a 

 permanent human food supply, at the same time looking out for the 

 well-being and profit of the farmer. 



A SYSTEM THAT Is PROFITABLE 



Before the time of Dr. Hopkins, soil investigators had learned 

 many things relating to the use of chemical elements in producing the 

 growth of plants. But to secure the benefits of this knowledge in 

 such a wholesale way that all farmers could practise the system and 

 keep the cost of production below the money value of the increase in 

 the crop, it was necessary to discard every expenditure possible. Dr. 

 Hopkins realized that the success of a system of agriculture which 

 would produce an abundance of food for all would depend upon free- 

 dom from competition between farmers for their supply of the 



11 



