SOME POINTS IN PRACTICE 



green manvtres. But the farmer of Utah, 

 Montana, and Arizona is working on 

 different land. He knows that if he can 

 conserve his moisture he will reap an 

 abimdant harvest.^ His problem then is 

 how best to store up his small annual 

 rainfall. Show him how to do that and 

 he is fully satisfied. Indeed, it is more or 

 less useless to urge the conservation of 

 fertility on men whose real need is more 

 water. I do not wish to minimize the 

 great value of fertility or the necessity 

 of keeping the essential plant- foods from 

 being used up: but simply to emphasize 

 the fact that the farm must be made to 

 pay, and it is more important for the 

 Western farmer to concentrate his mind 

 on the conservation of soil moisture than 

 on the possible exhaustion of his land in 

 ten years' time. There are, of course, 



1 This is also largely true of South Africa, where the 

 problem of moisture supply is much more important than 

 the question of fertility. 



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