The Washington herald., 1910-11-06
FOOD EXPERT WILEY
A CONSERVATIONIST
Perhaps First Public official
to Take a Stand.
SPOKE FIFTEEN YEARS AGO
Clerk ina Chemistry Bureau Finds
Paper Yellow and Dusty with
Age-subjeet Title, "The Waste
and Conservation of Plant Food"
Water Great Danger.

AS guardian of the publics health, DIT
Harvey W. Wiley, the pure food expert,
is called by his friends one Of the great
est conservationists of them all.
1t is fact known TO but few. how
ever that ne was perhaps the first man
now in public life to declare publicly for
a broad system Of conservation Of nat
ural resources, the movement which Is
just beginning to make history
This was in his retiring address as
president Of the american Chemical So
ciety at It's annual meeting in Baltimore
Ia December, 1888 just fifteen years be-
fore the famous White House conference
Of governors.
Clerk Finds Proof.
A clerk rummaging through some old
papers i'm the Bureau of Chemistry un-
earthed this information a printed copy
of the address, dusty and yellow with
age. was shown the doctor, and he smiled
when he saw that the title was. The
waste and conservation OF plant food"
In his address he covered practically
MI phases of conservation, excepting
water power and coal OF late years
Wiley has been TOO busy chasing adulter-
ators of food and the dopers Of drugs
given 20 babies and the sick TO even
think of any phase of conservation eX-
Ceptng public health
WiIey's Conception.
A few paragraphs of what he said viii
give an idea Of the doctors conception Of
conservation at that time.
cone Of the greatest of the practical
problems presented for solution by agri-
cultural chemistry is the conservation OF
plant food, he told his fellOw-chem.sts.
In this country owing 10 the great
stores of wealth which the past had
accumulated in the SOIL il Is only within
recent years that the question OF the
supply of plant food has assumed any
practical Importance.
As long as there were virgin fields a
the disposal of the agricultural rapist,
the conservation and restoration OF eX-
hausted fields was of little consequence.
Not only have these stores of plant food
been utilized but much 90 the disCredlt
OF the American farmer. they have been
wasted. The mark Of good agriculture Is
a. see fields yielding annually good re-
turns and increasing OF at least not les
SEEMING, in fertility, This being true, the
history Of American agriculture 10 within
a few years must be the history of bad
farming. for everywhere we have seen
fertile helds losing their fertility and
farms once productive abandoned
An Unavoidable Waste.
''The waste TO which I desire to call
your attention is not that which normally
takes place in the production OF crop,
but that which is incidental TO the cult
walton Of the soil, and 20 a certain extent
unavoidable. / refer 10 the denudation
Of fields by water and 10 the removal OF
soluble plant food by the perCOlation OF
water through the soil The losses due TO
the denudation Of fields are purely Of "a
mechanical character.
The natural forest. or the natural
covering of grass over an area OF SOIL
prevents, 10 a large extent, the denuda-
ton due % heavy doWnpOurs OF rain. The
removal OF the forest and the destruc-
ton OF the grass by cultivation leave the
soil in a condition in which il is unable
20 resist the action of flowing surface
water. A more striking lesson may be
seen in the hill regions bordering both
banks Of the Ohio River
Furrowed GulIieS.
Hundreds Of fields once covered with
sturdy forests Of oak. maple, and walnut
and afterward bearing large crops of
miaze. tobacco. and wheat may now be
seen furToWed with gullies, as with the
wrinkles Of age, and abandoned TO brush
and briers.
The same is doubtless true Of other
hill regions, bat l speak the more advis-
eddy Of those which have come under my
personal observation. Great however, as
the mechanical loss Of plant food is. it Is
by no means as dangerous as the loss Of
the soluble materials caused by the per-
collation. Of water trough the soil