The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-05-07
Land the Basis of Wealth.
Continued from Page One.)

Continued from Page One.)
ON the new lands Of the West. where
once the wheat yield was from % to
80 bushel per acre. it is now from
= to Is. Frankly, and without shame
this is attributed to the wearing out
of the soil, Us if the earth We're a gar
ment that suSt be destroyed by the
wearing. II the earth. the mother of
humanity, is TO wear out what is to
become OF the race? The fact is thai
soils. properly treated. maintain their
productiveness indefinitely under cul-
tiVation. The further fact is that, with
the disappearance Of pestilence ana
the discontinuance of war that belong
to the future. all contributing to the
growth of population. the productive
capacity Of the soil must be sustained
ct its highest point or the world sut-
fer want.
Sustaining Power of the Soil.
The life sustaining power Of the
soil is lowered in two Ways First,
by physical destruction, through
the carrying away Of the
earth to the sea. and Sec
ond, chemically, by the withdrawal of
the elements required for plant life.
The waste from the former cause is
very great. It accounts for S%terility in
the older, which are also the more
billy portions of the cultivated
try. 1t may easily be checked or pre-
vented. The agriculture OF Japan,
which IS one Of the highest type, pre-
serves 4 mountain farm intact by ter
racing n careful meditation Of its
level. Prof. Smaller says that a field
lying at an angle OF twenty degrees
can be totally destroyed in a hundred
rlOWingS. Throughout the South this
process Of d~enudation has proceeded
fast and IS going orwar rapidly. He
estimates from personal observation
/ nat IN the State of Iant11nLyv (which
has not been largely cultivated for
more than a century One-tenth of the
arabic soil has been destroyed and
that u considerable portion of this can
not be restored by any application Of
industry n care.
Deliberate Soil Exhaustion.
More serious and even more univer-
sal and speedy is the process Of DELHI
crate son exhaustion. New England
once supported a population of farm
trS whose shot was heard around the
world. Prof. Carver, OF Harvard, at
ter a tour Of five hundred and fifty
miles on horseback last year, records
his conclusion that agriculture as an
independent industry. able in itself to
maintain Il community, does not eX-
list in the hilly parts of New England.
1t is not many years since the favored
Wheat-prOducing areas of he Amer
lean Northwest gave q Yield Of from
twenty-five bushels per acre upwards.
Now an average of twelve TO fifteen
is accepted as satisfactory. Under the
stress of need, by Intelligent culuNa-
ton. many of the lands of Great Brit
ain, cropped for 4 thousand years, are
made to bear thirty bushels 10 the
acre. The rich. deep soil of U oNia
country. drawn upon for a few de-
! cades. produces about twelve. The
same ratio holds good Of other cereals
and OF every product OF the field. The
sea islands that once grew the most
| NOUS cotton staple in the world are
virtually abandoned. The people nave
neglected the preservation Of the soil.
| They take away all II give nothing
back. Thorough fertilization Of The
land has no place in the general work
on the American farm. Average
American agriculture means the eX-
! traction from nature of the greatest
immediate return at the lowest posi-
| hle outlay OF labor or one with SUB
lime disregard OF consequences. EX-
cept at scattered experiment stations
and in isolated instances there Is lit
tie done in the United States OWard
farm economies. Scientific adaptation
of soil to product. intelligent rotation
of crops. diversification of industry, in
tensive farming-constitute the rare
exception and not the rule. Only two
States in the Cnion show al average
total value of farm products in excess
of $50 per acre of improved land. n
figure for Illinois in 1900 was SPAS;
tor North Carolina, $10.72; for Min
neSOt $S.74. By proper cultivation
these returns could easily be double
and still leave the soils resources un-