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bile, that there is likely in the next 10 years to be a halt in this 
change toward the city, and more people in proportion are likely 
to engage in gainful occupation on the farm than has hereto- 
fore been the case. Such an effect would be the natural result 
of the actual economic operation of the increase in the value of 
the farm product, and the increase in the certainty of farming 
profits. 
It is the business of the country, in so far as it can direct the 
matter, to furnish the means by which this economic force shall 
exert itself along the lines of easiest and best increase of pro- 
duction. Of course the government, by furnishing assistance 
in irrigation, increases the amount of tillable land, and the 
States, if they undertake the drainage of swamp lands, will do 
the same thing. The cost of such improvements will be con- 
siderable, and will affect the farming profit, but the result gener- 
ally in such cases is to yield such great crops per acre that the 
farmer can well afford to pay interest on the increased invest- 
ment. Increased acreage from any other source is likely to be, 
however, in rriore stubborn land, calling for greater effort in 
tillage and producing less per acre. We may reasonably infer 
from the high prices of the decade immediately past that every- 
thing was done by those who owned land to enlarge the acreage 
where that was easy or practical, and that what is yet to be 
brought in as tillable land presents greater difficulties and 
greater expense. The way in which the States can help to meet 
future increased demand is by investigation and research into 
the science of agriculture, and by giving to the farming com- 
munity a knowledge which shall enable them better to develop 
the soil, and by educating those who are coming into the profes- 
sion of farming. It is now almost a learned profession. 
The first great step that has to be taken in reformed agricul- 
ture is the conservation of the soil. Under our present system 
the loss to the farms in this country by the erosion of the soil is 
hardly to be calculated. Engineers have shown how much is 
carried down the great rivers of the country and is deposited 
as silt each year at their mouths. The number of cubic yards 
staggers the imagination. The question is how this can be pre- 
vented, as it must be, because the soil which is carried off by 
this erosion is generally the richest and the best soil of the farms 
which are thus denuded. 
Of the rain or snow which falls on the land, a part evaporates 
into the air ; a second part flows down the slopes to the streams, 
and is called the run-off. The third part soaks into the soil and 
sub-soil, and thence into underlying rocks, perhaps to reappear 
in springs or seepage into streams. This is called ground water. 
The fourth part is absorbed by organisms, chiefly by trees, 
grasses, and crop plants, either directly through the tissues or 
indirectly through the roots penetrating the moistened soil. 
Erosion is due to the run-off, and its quantity is dependent on 
