PROBLEM OF CROP PRODUCTION 377 



lished on our western prairies and our future welfare 

 depends upon its establishment we must not carry our 

 wheat system too far. We cannot waste the fertility of 

 our soil and still have it. To-day we are selling our soil 

 fertility at the rate of 25 cents for each bushel of wheat 

 sold. We individually can afford to do that for some 

 time, but the State cannot afford to permit us to do it 

 indefinitely. 



339. In Conclusion. It is the moral duty of the crop 

 grower to produce as large crops as can be profitably 

 grown. It is the double function of society to see (1) that 

 the farmer is not hampered in this purpose by economic 

 disadvantages and (2) that agriculture receives such co- 

 operation and encouragement from the State as will 

 enable it to establish a more permanent system of farm- 

 ing. 



Intelligent tillage, the choice of suitable crops, and 

 suitable cultural practices, will enable us to develop the 

 resources of our soil. Business methods and in some 

 places a rotation of crops and the introduction of live 

 stock will enable us to produce crops more profitably, 

 but only the use of legume crops, the practice of a crop 

 rotation and the return to the soil of some of the plant 

 food we remove in crops and in fallowing will enable us 

 to build up a permanent agriculture, and a permanent 

 agriculture is absolutely essential to the future well- 

 being of the State. 



In the final analysis our ultimate success as a nation 

 depends not only upon our ability to produce profitable 

 crops now, t)ut upon our ability to keep on producing 

 profitable crops. 



