The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-01-18
WEARS OUT HIS FARM
IN A SINGLr. LIFETIME.
Rich Soil Rendered Sterile Through
Continuous Bad Cropping and Poor
Management Of Fertility.
Bv ARTHUR s. HILL.

many similar expressions to indicate
that the land would never become less
productive Were quite common a de-
cade ago. But YOU seldom hear such
words now; they are passing away
with many other thoughtless conceits.
But whoever heard of 4 man taking
a piece of virgin soil and literally
wearing it out in his own lifetime?
\ most impressive illustration OF
this very hin recently came under
the writer's personal observation, a
few miles from Carbondale in south
ern Illinois.
A man now we'll along in his nine
ties is living upon a 120-acr farm
Which he secured from the govern
ment about sixty years ago at $1.25
an acre. The place has never been
transIc erred to another person.
1t was good ground and used to
produce thirty-fiVe bushels OF Wneat
per acre, but has been farInod SO con-
stantlN to corn and wheat without any
intelligent rotation or provision to re-
turn the plant food taken off in the
crops that now the produce Of the
land barely enables the occupants TO
exist.
The last wheat crop was two bush
els per acre. Probably less thar ten
bushels Of corn per acre were raised
there this year. The land can be
ounted on for little if any more than
3 quarter Of an average crop. Some
tof t:s land must lie idle every year
to pest al' for the next crop-as the
/ writer saw.
4 nearby farmer mas forty bushels
=. corr nrr g.r NAV have .
acre taia
IN thai locality
10. oa}1 l.g that conte1n-
plates more .eping soul and
Dody together l. ta-rm has been
ruined. II VII amount 70 n%otfins
until il has the eject Of right treat
ment, and rather expensive treat
ment, for q series of years. And
many another Illinois farm has been
practically ruined in the same time,
Though perhaps not many by the So
called farming Of n person.
he owner can never build up
such land. The utmost he can do is
TO live. He has not even a dollar pei
acre to invest in Improvement. Money
for such wise investment must come
from outside the farm.
1t takes a little longer to ruin tho
ichcr land of central illinois, but u
can be done just as certainly, as Il
,hown by the thirty years of contlnu-
Gus corn growing on one OF the u1h
VerSity plots at Urbana
Now every intelligent farmer is be,
ginning to see that Without some
proper care and repair his soil vii
not maintain itself forever, any more
than would his buildings. And hap
pily, i'll most parts of illinois the
farmers are stu able to improve or tt
preserve their soil.
Nothing more significant to Ameri-
can agriculture has ever been uttered
than the two sites Of the same propo'
sition pcrsistenuy tau2h by Dr. tNrl
&. Hopkins, the University OF ILLINOIS
soil expert, as follows:
! TO permanently maintain proilta'
bic systems of agriculture is II mos
important material problem, not onl!
in Illinois, but in the United states.
IT we shall succeed III Illinois II
discovering and adopting into genera
agricultural practice systems OF farm
ing that will restore our soils to thel
ivirgin fertility and permanently
maintain Il high productive capacity
for thcse Illinois lands, it will be tht
first time for this to be accomplished
Eanvwherc in the world over such al
area"
This is getting down to bedrock il
agriculture. The most TAR slSntet
and unseltish farmers are just begin
ming to comprehend the literal mean
ing of these facts and the a~dVisa5illt!
OF acting upon them before it Is to,
late.
\ FEW SHEEP FOR EVERY Farm