The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-06-23
A Square Deal For the Soil.

udl ID luS SSS UuslueSS pAOm-
lem this nation is facing to-day? One
man will speak up quickly and say:
"The question of an elastic currency,
of course" his neighbor will declare
that the attitude Of the Administra-
ton toward corporations oversteps
everything else in Importance to the
people of this country. A little later
we are likely to be told that the re-
adjustment of the tariff is the over
shadowing question.
But all the time a problem bigger
than any of these is being overlooked
by the politicians of all parties, by
the press of the entire country, by
the political economists and by most
of the people themselves. Only a
few men recognize the existence and
the bigness of this question, and they
are of the kind that make very little
noise in the world. However, if they
are listened to and their words taken
to heart by the men who make up the
greatest industrial class in the United
States, we, as a nation, will suddenly
wake up to the fact that we have
been committing industrial suicide.
The reckless and wholesale deple-
ton of the fertility of the soil, in
this good land of ours, is beyond all
question the biggest and most seri-
Gus question now confronting the
American people-and j. is bound to
remain the big problem for many
years to come. I am so sure OF this,
and feel so deeply on this matter,
that I have determined to devote the
remaining years of my life to doing
all I can to arouse the farmers OF
this country to the fact that, if they
20 on taking everything they can out
of the soil and putting next to moth
ing back, they are in the position OF
deliberately and knowingly creating
a hopeless run on the greatest bank
in the world-the marvellous soil OF
the United States-a run which a
result only in wreck and disaster as
wide as the country.
This is the dark side of the picture,
the thing which will surely happen
if we do not wake up and give the
Soil a square deal. There is another
side to the problem as bright as this
one is dark-a reward for we'll doing
Just as great in proportion as the
punishement for wrong doing. II
only twenty-five per cent. of the far
mers of this country would wake up
to the situation and do their level
best in giving the soil a square DEAL
they would not only save the aDso-
lutte loss of millions Of dollars, but
they would make millions more-and
make themselves rich in the bargain.
Unless there is a general and VIDE
spread reform in this matter OF the
~mistreatment of our soil We are going
literally to put millions OF acres OF
good land out of business. All we
have to do, to cut out our national
wealth land enough to make a dozen
European kingdoms, is to keep right
on doing what we are doing, and
what we have been doing ever since
the first reaper and binder was put
into the field. In the matter of soil
depletion the farmers of this country
have been going the pace that kills
that kills land and robs the nation
Of a yearly power to produce a vol
ume of wealth almost beyond the
power of the average man to under
stand.
This problem is not a theory with
me; I haven't come at it from the
theoretical side. To the contrary, l
have bumped against it from the
practical, the active side. I did not
leave the farm until I was twenty-siX
years old, and there hasn't been a
year of my life since when I haven't
been in some kind of business which
was close to the soil. And for many
years I have owned and operated
several thousands Of acres of farm
land-and do so now. And l may
add that I have not a single farm
which I have not made to pay a good
and satisfactory percentage on the
investment year after year. l say
this simply because the farmers DO
not take kindly to advice from mere
theorists; they naturally wish to
kn5w that advice comes from a prac-
tical and successful farmer before
they attach enough importance to 1t
to act upon it. This is right n
natural, and it is because l am so
anxious to have them give to my
plea the weight which it deserves
that I say to them: I am entitled to
talk about farming because I was
brought up on a farm, and operate
several thousand acres of farm LAND
divided into farms of $50 acres
each, in a way which makes them
pay me a handsome profit.
BUILDING UP THE LAND.
Right from the start l made up
my mind to buy good farms and keep
them and run them for profit. This
meant that I looked at them as a
long time investment, not as some
thing on which to speculate or make
a quick turn. In other words, The
task before HE was that of building
I'D and making the farms much better
each year, stronger in their ability
to produce profitable crops. How
many farmers treat their land in this
way? Fewer, by far, than you would
suppose! Of course, most of them
intend to do this-but there is a wide
gap between their intentions and
their practice. 1t is no exaggeration
to say that the majority of farmers