Natural Fertility of the Soil 13 



ARTIFICIAL LOSSES OF FERTILITY 



In addition to these natural losses of fertility, there are 

 the artificial losses of the constituents, or those due to 

 the removal of crops. These, of course, necessarily ac- 

 company all farming operations, and, provided that in 

 the removal and sale of the constituents in the form of 

 crops, the farmer has received a fair price for them, they 

 are entirely legitimate. 



The sale of farm products is really in the last analysis 

 a sale of actual constituents, together with a certain por- 

 tion of the "condition" of the land, which is not readily 

 measurable. That is, it is the constituents in the soil, 

 together with the conditions surrounding it, that the 

 farmer buys when he buys land. If an acre of land, con- 

 taining within the reach of the roots of the plant, say, 

 3000 pounds of nitrogen, 5000 pounds of phosphoric 

 acid and 6000 pounds of potash, sells for $100, the seller 

 receives the $100, not for so much dirt, but really for the 

 constituents contained in it. The purchaser believes 

 that, with the conditions surrounding them, he can con- 

 vert them into products which he can sell and from which 

 realize a profit. If in selling these amounts of the con- 

 stituents in the form of land, a lower price to the acre is 

 received, it is because the natural conditions which sur- 

 round them, and which influence their utility, are less 

 favorable, and a greater proportionate effort and expense 

 are necessary to secure them in the form of salable prod- 

 ucts. The difference in the price of land is not always 

 due to the content of the constituents, but often to the 

 conditions surrounding them. In many cases, the soil 

 may serve simply as a medium in which plants can grow, 

 and the content of the fertility elements is of minor im- 



