Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-05-14
THE WASTE OF OUR
NATIONAL RESOURCES
Continued from First Page.)

| confront the future unless decided steps
are taken to avert the consequent re-
suits.
'''Of all the sinful MASTERS OF man
inheritance EARTH said the late froi.
Shaler. and all are in this regard SIN.
ners, the very worst are the people .,
! America This is not popular phrase.
commented Mr.. Hill. but a sclentlhc
judgment. It is borne out by facts.
Natural Resources.
THE sum of resources is simple and
fixed" Mr.. Hill continued. From the
sea. the mine. the forest and the SOIL
| must be gathered everything that can
sustain the life of man. Upon the wealth
| that these supply must be conditioned
| forever, far as We can see. not only
| his progress. but his continued existence
| on earth How stands the inventory OF
| property for our own people! The re-
| sources of the sea furnish less than nVe
| per cent of the food supply. ana that -
| all. The forests of this country, the
product of centuries of growth, are fast
disappearing"
Mr.. Hill gave statistics to prove his
| statement. Turning now to one OF tne
| only two remaining sources or Weaitii,
the mine. we find it different from the
| others In an important essential. IL IS
| incapable of restoration or recuperatlon.
| The mineral wealth stored In the eartn
| can be used only once. When iron ana
l d
| not be restored: and upon iron and coaf
| our industrial civilization is built. When
fuel and iron become scarce and hlgn-
| priced, civilization, as Tar as we can
| now foresee, will suffer as man would
suffer by the gradual withdrawal of the
air he breathes-
I'VE now turn to the only remaining
| resource of man upon this earth, "hlch
| is the soil itself. How are we caring Tor
| that and what possibilities does II hoid
out to the people Of future support:
Waste Of the Land.
There are two ways In which the pro-
ductive power of the earth is lessened.
First. by erosion and the sweeping away
| of the fertile surface into streams ana
| thence to the sea, and second. by exhaus-
ton through wrong methods of cuitlva-
| ton The former process has gone FAR
Thousands of acres in the east and south
have been made unfit for tillage.
'F'ar more ruinous. because universal
and continuing in it's effects, is the
process of soil exhaustion. 1t is creeping
over the land from east to west. The
abandoned farms that are now the play
things of the city's rich or the game pre-
serves of patrons of sport bear witness 10
the melancholy change. New Hampshire,
Vermont northern New York. show long
which once supported fourishng agrl-
culture. farm properties are now for sale
for half the cost of the improvements.
Prof. Carver of Harvard has declared
after a personal examination of the coun-
try that agriculture as an independent
industry. able in itself to support a COM
munity, does not exist in the hllly parts
of New England The same process of
deterioration is affecting the farm lands
of western New York. Ohio and Indiana
Agriculture at Low Ebb.
I'm no other important country In the
world, with the exception of Russia, is the
agricultural industry. that must be the
foundation of every state, at SO low an
ebb as in our own.
when the most fertile land in the
world produces so much less than that of
poorer quality elsewhere. and this low
yield shows a tendency to steady decline,
the situation becomes clear We are rob-
bling the soil In an effort to get the largest
cash returns from each acre OF ground
in the shortest possible time and with the
least possible labor.
Abuse of the Land.
Our agricultural lands have been
abused in two principal ways; first by sin
gle; cropping and second by neglecting
fertilization. 1t is fortunate for us that
nature ia slow to anger. and that we may
arrest the consequences of this ruinous
policy before it is too late. In all parts of
the United States. with only isolated ex-
ceptions. the system Of tillage has befn
to select the crop which would bring in
most money at the current market rate
to plant that year after year, and to move
on to virgin fields as soon as the old farm
rebelled by lowering the quality and guam
tity of its return.
THE two remedies are as we'll ascer-
tanned as is the evil. Rotation of crops
and the use of fertilizers act as tonics
upon the soil. We might expand our re-
N 1t All
national wealth by conserving soil re-
sources instead of exhausting them as we
have the forests and the contents of the
mines.
Il have dwelt upon the conservation of
farm resources because of the command
ing importance of this industry and be-
cause of its relation to our future. Nearly
36 per cent Of our people are engaged d.
rectly in agriculture. But all the rest de-
pend upon it. In the last analysis. com
merce, manufactures. our home market.
every form of activity runs back to the
bounty of the earth, by which every
worker, skilled and unskilled. must be fed
and by which his wages are ultimately
paid.
Duty of the Hour.
THE first task. 1t seems to me. must
be to force home the facts Of the situation
into the public consciousness: to make
men realize their duty toward coming
generations exactly as the father feels
it duty to see that his children do not
suffer want.
The work now being done by the
Department of Agriculture and the agri-
cultural colleges of the various states
furnishes broad and intelligent founda-
ton upon which to build up new era
of national progress and prosperity. 1t
calls for wise, generous and continuing
policy on the part of both federal and
state governments.
IF this patriotic gospel is to make head
way it must be by just such organized
missionary work as is today begun. 1t
needs the cooperation of all the in
fluences, the help of every voice, the
commentator of nation and state that
has been the strength and inspiration of
every worthy work on American soil for
11D years.
Mr.. Hill talked for nearly an hour. and
congratulated by the members of the cab
met William j. Bryan and others. who
shook hands with him. Prof. Chamberlain
of the University OF Chicago and presi-
dent of the American Association for the
| Advancement of Science. followed.
DR.. Chamberlain Address.
| Prof. Thomas c. Chamberlain. senior
professor of geology at the University of
| Chicago, spoke on the general subject of
Soil" though he extended his remarks
! particularly to Soil Wastage" He said
| that the giving of thought to the future
appealed to him with peculiar force be-
| cause recent studies had led him to the
| belief that the earth's future habita bility
In dc fln