CHAPTER II 



Principles of Permanent Agriculture 



The first requisite for a system of permanent 

 agriculture is some scientific and practical plan of 

 soil management which will permit the removal of 

 maximum yearly crops without permanently lower- 

 ing the productive capacity of the land. This con- 

 dition is one which has never been fully met in any 

 except some isolated instances in the United States. 

 In fact, it may be said that in only a few countries 

 in the entire world has this balance between pro- 

 duction and maintenance been so adjusted as to 

 make possible a permanent agriculture. In some 

 of the oldest countries of the world certain sec- 

 tions have been cultivated continuously since the 

 most remote times and are still productive. This 

 may be due to some special condition such as pre- 

 vails in the Nile valley, whereby the spring floods 

 bring down an annual fresh supply of rich soil, 

 which is deposited upon the surface, or it may be 

 due to the general practice of systems of agricul- 

 ture which tend toward soil preservation. For the 

 most part, however, the history of the oldest agri- 

 cultural regions is one of ultimate famine and star- 

 vation, because production did not keep pace with 

 the demand, and because soils were systematically 

 robbed of their power to produce maximum yields. 

 The conservation of all possible forms of fertility in 

 the soil is found in the practice of Chinese farmers 

 of today. Absolutely no scrap of vegetation or of 

 any substance containing organic matter which can 



18 



