CHAPTER V 



Let the West Heed the Warning 



The various examples of gradually decreasing 

 yields in the southern states and along the Atlantic 

 coast should be sufficient warning to the dwellers 

 in the more fertile and newer regions of the West 

 and Northwest. While it would be difficult to 

 prove by statistics that the total yield of grains 

 and other crops throughout the United States is 

 less than formerly, this decrease is evident and 

 easily proved in parts of New England, New York, 

 New Jersey and the south Atlantic states, where 

 the ground has been cultivated for several hundred 

 years. In those localities there is not any ques- 

 tion as to the result of continuous grain cropping 

 and failure to keep large numbers of live stock. In 

 fact, in many sections a considerable percentage of 

 the farm land is unprofitable because of waning 

 production. On the other hand, in these same old 

 localities, frequently examples of maintained fer- 

 tility and increased crop production demonstrate 

 that by intelligent handling the productive capacity 

 of almost any soil in the United States may con- 

 tinue for an indefinite period. 



The most disastrous feature in these older sec- 

 tions, and which the West should heed, is the 

 growing of grain crops continuously on the same 

 land. It has been positively proved that decreased 

 yields under those conditions must follow. In 

 1888, an experimental plot in Champaign county, 

 Illinois, under the direction of the university of 

 Illinois, was set aside for continuous corn grow- 



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