The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-11-12
HILLS WARNING.
Appeal for Stopping Agricultural
Waste Echoed In New York City.

Appeal for Stopping Agricultural
Waste Echoed In New York City.
New York, Nov. g. Concerning
James ]. Hill's article in the current
Worlds Work, the New York Tribune
says:
"Mr. James ]. Hills appeal in the
Worlds Work for the stopping Of
agricultural waste Is one Of the most
timely and pertinent utterances which
of the conversation of our natural
resources. Not long ago there were
published statistics showing that the
soils of the old countries of the world,
or Of some OF them, were not wearing
OUT but were actually increasing In
productiveness. That was reassuring
and encouraging. But nothing would
be easier than to misinterpret 1t, or
to misapply its teaching. Instead Of
giving charter for carelessness and
profligate expenditure of the resources
of fertility, 1t presents what should
be convincing and constraining OBJ
ject lesson in the urgent need of
care and economy.
"The fact that some European lands
are far more productive than ours
and that some lands in our New Eng
land and middle states are much
more productive than the plains and
prairies of the west, Is no proof that
long cultivated lands are necessarily
or are invariably more fertile than
the new. Mr.. Hill cites the instruc
tive contrast between France and
Spain. Both countries have been cul-
tivated for very long time. One of
them is exceedingly fertile and Is
rich and prosperous. The other is
chiefly sterile and is poor and I'M
prosperous. 1t Is quite true that New
England produces far more wheat by
the acre than any western state, yet
| 1t contains many so-called abandoned
farms which produce little or nothing.
The lesson. written large on every
field, is this: That 1t is not the length
of time during which land has been
cultivated, but rather the manner in
which 1t has been and Is cultivated,
which determines it's productiveness.
France is more fertile than Spain
because the French people are COM
mensurately more thrifty and careful
than the Spanish. England, France
and Germany are more productive
than America, because the land there
is cultivated more carefully and thor
oughly and scientifically, and because
there Is far less waste of fertilizing
material. All the sewage of Paris and
Berlin is returned to the soil for it's
enrichment, while all that of New
York and Chicago is poured into the
rivers and the sea for their defile-
ment.
1.-The cultivated lands of Vermont
are more productive than those Of
Illinois because their cultivation is
more thorough and intense. Douglas
Jerrold said that in Australia the
soil was so fertile that if you tickled
it with a hoe it laughed with a har-
vest, and that flight of fancy may be
fguratively true concerning some vir-
gin soils; but such conditions do not
endure. The richest virgin soil is not
so productive as the carefully titled
and fortified soil of old-settled places,
and few seasons cultivation suffice
to exhaust it if its richness is not re.
plenished.
That is why, as Mr. Hill reminds
us, thousands of men are DESERVING
our great grain states of the north.
west for the newer soil of Canada.
They have exhausted the virgin soil
upon which they settled a few years
ago, and now. instead of replenish.
ing its fertility beyond what it was
in its virgin state, they seek other
virgin soils elsewhere. 1t is a short
sighted and profligate process, against
which it Is well for so authoritative
voice as Mr.. Hills to utter a pro,
test and warning. 1t is a splendid
thing to reclaim by irrigation or
otherwise lands which we found des.
erts; but 1t would be a still wiser
thing to prevent the deterioration OF
lands which we found fertile"