CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



more, the conversion of products inedible to man 

 to edible products. In our country their number 

 will increase, doubtless, for a long period of time, 

 finding their places more surely on eastern farms 

 rather than on western ranches. They must find 

 the cheaper land, and that is no longer confined 

 to the west. They must be where coarse materials, 

 inedible to man, are found, and that is on eastern 

 as well as on western farms. Their office will not 

 be the conversion of crops into manure, but the 

 conversion of coarse materials into human food 

 in the form of meat or milk. This is the trend, 

 and while the consummation may happily be far 

 in the future, its consideration helps us to an ap- 

 preciation of the facts regarding nature's pro- 

 vision for maintaining the productiveness of the 

 soil. 



Sales off the Farm. The day is now here when 

 the major portion of human food must be provided 

 in grain and vegetables and fruit, and the demand 

 for hay and grain for animals off the farm is very 

 large. Fiber products likewise must be supplied. 

 The draft upon the soil is heavy, but it must be 

 good farm practice to supply bread and vegetables 

 and fruit to the 70 per cent of our population that 

 is not on farms. The great majority of- farmers 



