Our Soils 



3 



now fenceless and deserted? The land remains, the 

 climate remains, the slaves remain, but the owners 

 are not. The fertility of the soil went before them ; 

 they baled it with their cotton, barreled it with their 

 sugar, until naught remains but the barren soil. 



A few years ago the term " out West " was synon- 

 ymous with bounty and fertility. We were told that 

 one had but to "tickle the soil with a hoe, and it 

 laughed a harvest." All this has changed. Their 

 average yield per acre during the last ten years has 

 declined twenty-five per cent. 



Farming on Productive Soil. 



Happily, however, this state of things, with a prop- 

 er knowledge of agriculture, is unnecessary. There 

 is a way, not only to maintain the fertility of the soil, 

 but to increase it. England has been under the plow 

 for centuries, still her average yield of wheat has in- 

 creased to over thirty -one bushels per acre, while the 

 average yield in this country has steadily declined 

 until it is only about thirteen bushels per acre. 

 China, one of the oldest countries in the world has 

 increased the agricultural resources of the empire 

 to keep pace with the rapidly increasing population. 

 It is a fact that the heathen Chinee knows better 

 than we how to preserve and increase the fertility 

 of the soil. If America would close her eastern 

 gates to emigrants who come here to rob our soil, 

 and let a few Chinamen farmers in at the western 

 gate, we might learn some valuable lessons in farm- 

 ing. Fertility means prosperity. 



