10 FERTILIZERS IN THE WEST 



that conditions are favorable. But this knowledge is of little 

 practical value, because plant food liberated in a thousand 

 years is of no use to us; and besides, we are in honor bound 

 to pass on our land to our sons and grandsons in at least the 

 same state of fertility in which we received it ourselves. For 

 these reasons we should and must return to the soil, no matter 

 how rich our land is or how much rainfall we have, the pot- 

 ash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen that we have removed from 

 it by cropping, if we want to at least maintain the fertility 

 of our land. But the intelligent and progressive farmer will 

 not stop here; he is not satisfied with just maintaining the 

 fertility of his soil, but constantly strives to attain that point 

 where a given acre yields him the largest possible profit. 

 This cannot be done without adequate fertilization. 



The other assertion advanced to discredit the use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers in the arid and semi-arid regions of the 

 West is to the effect that the amount of moisture in our 

 western soils is not sufficient to allow of the proper utilization 

 of the fertilizer applied. This is true only insofar as slightly 

 more water is necessary for the production of the increased 

 crop raised with the aid of fertilizer, than for the small crop 

 grown without it. But the fertilizer as such does not only not 

 reduce the moisture present in your soil, but on the contrary 

 helps to conserve this moisture. This has been amply demon- 

 strated by scientific experiments as well as by practical experi- 

 ence. Dr. John A. Widtsoe, the well-known president of the 

 Utah Agricultural College, who has made a large number of 

 careful experiments on this question, came to the conclusion 

 that "the application of artificial fertilizers to a soil which 



