March, 1912.] 



247 



Miscellaneous. 



CONSERVATION OF THE SOIL. 



(Prom the Hawaiian Forester and 

 Agriculturist, Vol. .VIII., No. 11, 

 November, 1911.) 

 (Address of President Taft before the 

 National Conservation Congress at 

 Kansas City, Mo,, September 25, 1911.) 



Members op the National Conserv- 

 ation Congress, 



At last year's Convention of this Con- 

 gress I had the honour and pleasure of 

 delivering an address on the subject of 

 conservation of our national resources, 

 and therein attempted to state what the 

 term " Conservation" of our national 

 resources meant, what were the statutes 

 affecting and enforcing such conserv- 

 ation, classified the different public lands 

 to which it would apply, and suggested 

 what I thought was the proper method 

 of disposing of each class of lands. 

 Nothing has been doce on this subject 

 by Congress since that time, but it is 

 hoped that the present Congress at its 

 regular session will take up the question 

 of the conservation of Government laud 

 containing coal and phosphates or fur- 

 nishing water power, adopt some laws 

 that will permit the use and develop- 

 ment of these lands in Alaska and in 

 continental United States, and evolve a 

 system by which the Government shall 

 retain proper ultimate control of the 

 lands, and at the same time offer to 

 private investment sufficient returns to 

 induce the outlay of capital needed to 

 make the lands useful to the public. 

 The discussion did not invoke the con- 

 sideration of any question which directly 

 concerned the production of food. 



To-night, however, I wish to consider 

 in a summary way another aspect of 

 conservation far more important than 

 that of preserving for the public in- 

 terests public lauds, that is, the con- 

 servation of the soil, with a view to the 

 continued production of food in this 

 country sufficient to feed our growing 

 popula tion. 



We have in continental United States 

 about 1,900,000,000 acres. Of this, the 

 Agricultural Department, through its 

 correspondents, estimates that 950,000,000 

 acres are capable of cultivation. Of 

 this, 873,729,000 acres are now in farms. 

 The remainder, about 1,000,000,000 acres, 

 is land which is untillable. It i9 reason- 

 ably certain that substantially all the 

 virgin soil of a character to produce 

 crops has been taken up. It is doubtful 

 how much of the part not included in 

 farms can be brought into a condition 

 in which tillage will be profitable. 



The total acreage of farms in the last 

 ten years, although the pressure for in- 

 creased acreage by reasou of high farm 

 prices was great, was increased only 

 about 4 per cent., or about 35,000,000 

 acres. There are upwards of 25,000,000 

 acres that will be brought in under our 

 irrigation system, and perhaps more, 

 and the amount of lands which can be 

 drained and made useful for agriculture 

 will amount to about 70,000,000 acres. 



The total improved farm lands in the 

 United States amount to 477,448,000 acres, 

 which is an increase in the last ten years 

 of 62,940,000, or 152 per cent. The 

 product per acre actually cultivated in- 

 creased in the last ten years 1 per cent, 

 a year, or 10 per cent. The total product 

 increased in ten years nearly 20 per cent. 



The population in this same time in- 

 creased 21 per cent. If the population 

 continues to increase at its present rate, 

 we shall have in fifty years double the 

 number of people we now have. It is 

 necessary, then, that not only our 

 acreage but also our product per acre 

 must increase proportionately so that 

 our people may be fed. We must 

 realize that the best land and the 

 land easiest to cultivate has been 

 taken up and cultivated, and that 

 the additions to improved lands and to 

 total acreage in the future must be of 

 land much more expensive to prepare 

 for tillage. The increase per acre of the 

 product, too, must be steady each year, 

 yet, each year an increase becomes more 

 difficult. Still, even in the face of 

 these facts, there is no occasion for 

 discouragement. We are going to re- 

 main a self-supporting country and 

 raise food enough within our borders 

 to feed our people. When we consider 

 that in Germany and Great Britain 

 crops are raised from land which has 

 been in cultivation for 1,000 years, and 

 that these lands are made to produce 

 more than two and three times per acre 

 what the comparatively fresh lands in 

 this country produce in the best States, 

 it becomes very apparent that we shall 

 be able to meet the exigency by better 

 systems of farming and more intense 

 and careful and industrious cultivation. 

 The theory seems to have been in times 

 past that soils become exhausted by 

 constant cultivation, but the result in 

 Europe, where acres. under constant use 

 for producing crops for ten centuries 

 are made now to produce crops three 

 times those of this country, shows that 

 there is nothing in this theory, and that 

 successful farming can be continued on 

 laud long in use, and that great crops 

 can be raised and garnered from it if 

 only it be treated scientifically and in 



