PROBLEM OF CROP PRODUCTION 365 



only will the interests of society as a whole, rather than 

 that of any class or section of it, be equitably served. 



326. The State's Third of the Problem-That of a Per- 

 manent Agriculture.— The conditions that affect growth 

 and the factors that affect profit are and will continue to 

 be the chief considerations of the individual farmer. Yet 

 a third set of conditions of vastly greater importance to 

 the future of the state, viz., those that affect the perman- 

 ence of our agriculture, remain to be considered. 



We are hearing much to-day on the one hand about 

 the "depletion" of the land, the loss of "fertility" and 

 the "exhaustion" of plant food from the soil ; and from 

 another quarter about our soil being "the richest in the 

 world", and about its supply of plant food being "inex- 

 haustible"". 



We hear of some land that after continuous cropping 

 and no return of plant food, is producing as much as, or 

 more than it did a generation ago, and we are led to ask 

 ourselves, "Do soils wear out?" "Can they become de- 

 pleted ?" "Are they being exhausted ?" These are ques- 

 tions upon our solution of which the future material 

 success of Western Canada very largely depends. 



What is fertility? In its narrowest sense it is plant 

 foodi materials in the soil, — the chemical substances 

 plants use in growing. In its broadest sense *it is ability 

 to produce crops, and includes (1) "available" plant 

 food, (2) tilth, or a favorable condition of the soil with 

 relation to water and heat and air; (3) health, or free- 

 dom of the soil from disease, and (4) purity, or its rela- 

 tive freedom from weeds and weed seeds. In its broadest 

 sense "fertility" means prodtictiveness, which is not 

 necessarily synonymous with, although generally closely 



