110 RURAL LIFE IN CANADA 



enough for a million crops, upon which we may draw 

 by means of clover. Potash is liberated through fer- 

 mentation by the use of manure. But Dr. Robertson's 

 words are to be well weighed when he tells us that 

 " phosphorus is somewhat deficient ; and there is great 

 danger for the future of farming in Canada unless we 

 conserve that and put it back upon the soil."* As to 

 the third factor in depletion, we know that " by cultiva- 

 tion and good management the farmer can increase the 

 population of his soils by many myriads of bacteria per 

 square inch in the course of a few years. "f Yet I have 

 seen in Ontario fields of loam where heavy crops of 

 rye had been recently grown, lying uncultivated and 

 in such shape that upon more than two-thirds of the 

 surface of the soil no weeds were to be seen. The 

 ground was bare. Bacteria there were almost none 

 in that soil. 



In my judgment this is almost the chief economic 

 cause of the rural exodus. Few think of leaving the 

 farm whose crops are increasing. And here again the 

 implications of the problem are ethical. The brief his- 

 tory of the North Dakota Better Farming Association 

 brings this fact out clearly. Although that State, the 

 pristine richness of whose prairies was so great, was set- 

 tled only in 1880, the average yield of wheat from 1905 

 to 1910 was but 12 bushels to the acre. In 1911 it 

 fell to 9 bushels. Thereupon Mr. A. Rogers, the lum- 

 ber king of the State, sought out Mr. B. L. Howe, the 

 elevator king, and said, " This State is going back to 

 the badgers. We have not more than ten years' busi- 

 ness ahead of us." Together they called on Mr. J. J. 



* Conservation Commission, III, p. 62. 

 t The same, p. 48. 



