Newark post., 1910-07-06
Continued from last week

There is here field for endeavor.
All this worn. poor, prohtiess eastern
soil may be redeemed and made to
blossom ont in beauty and product
iveness The irrigation OF desert val
leys was great work and 1t IS well
that il was done. The same sort OF
work can be done here at home and
the results will be even more profit
able to civilization and America. Here
in the East, we find already the popr-
lation. Here are now homes, farms,
schools, roads, villages, near to great
cities; the best markets in the world.
Here we find that strange enigma, inn
poverished and half abandoned fields
within driving distance OF such cities
as Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washing
ton, New York. Examine those
nearly abandoned fields and what do
you find? Always that they are starry
ing for carbonate OF lime. Certainly,
they are starving for nitrogen and
PHOSPHORUS as well, but that always
follows a lime hunger Nitrogen will
not accumulate in a soil that is lime
hungry. The bacteria that feed soils
with nitrogen do not exist i'll sour
soils. That is the primary cause OF
decay in farming along the Atlantic
seaboard: the fact that the soils are,
without exception, deficient i'll car
Donate of lime. On that primal fact,
SO long forgotten or never learnSd
rests ali the encouragement and de
cav that is found IRON Florida to Nova
Scotia. There is no reason in climate
for encouragement in the eastern
IT,
kets. His labor is cheaper and on
the whole better than the labor avail
able to the man OF the West, the man
OF the irrigated valley. These things
dismay the eastern man; the impover-
ished soil he inherits, the fearful con.
servatism, the lack OF happy hopes and
hopeful energy OF his neighbors
When the eastern man has the opti-
msm of the man OF the West, when he
dreams dreams oi his land; dreams
not based on what it is now nor or
what it was in his fathers day, bu
dreams Of what it ought to be ant
well may be. when he dreams these
dreams and smiles and is glad, roll:
up his sleeves and goes forth to com
bat a stubborn soil TACT, rolls up hi
sleeves and shovels carbonate OF lime
with the same happy enthusiasm "a
the western brother Shovels grave
out OF his canals and grubs TIP sag,
brush, when the time comes the Eas
will be the garden OF Eden, the East
the envied, happy, fortunate land, lant
of myraid happy homes, thousands o
snug. flower decked, tree shaded vii
lages, land oi apples, peaches, grapes
alfalfa. corn, cows, lambs, and happ.
children trudging schoolward, their lit
tie satchels filled with books, thei
pockets bulging with red apples an
never scale Of San Jose.
| repeat, then, with all possible EN-
phasis, that the primal need of tn
eastern farmer is knowledge OF how t
build his soil, faith, energy and none
with which to build it, He must hav
money in order to build the sort {
home that he needs. in order to rails
up his family as he ought to raise
up. he must have money for book
money for teachers, money for road
and without these things he is prett
sure to sink down into seridom that
below the level OF the peasants Of Fl
rope. If those who have the welfar
of the American farmer at heart ca
teach but one thing, let them teac
soil burning and trust the farmer t
use his wealth Alright when once h
has it, In this connection it is inte1
esting to note that in the enrollmer
OF students in the Ohio State Unive
sity. the counties having no lime
their soils send no studentS--thos
counties rich in lime send most stu(
-ents.
Now. assuming as have, tia
you will begin soil building and tn;
the farmer can hardly avoid maxim
money as consequence. what is tt
next thing will help him.
The next thing is so absurdly eas
and simple that. like the idea OF ca
Donate OF lime underlying all soil fe
tility. it NAV seem to you SO sma
and unessentia that you will wonde
and yet it is the most tremendot
proposition that / know how to a.
vance. and it it can be accomplished
will revolutionize all society, just
carbonate OF lime will revolutioni;
all your soils That proposition
this. the child shall be taught to ho
an ever reverent attitude toward {
OF Gods world. and all the creatuc
on it, including animals, plants, chill
rem, men and women Of every IA
and nationality.
| think here can see men inward
objecting, is such sentimental al
impractical stuff as this what the m;
from Ohio has come to give up?' Sc
timental. Not at all. Unpractica
No, the most practical OF ideas, til
and the thing OF greatest need Of an
thing i'll America today. woulG p
this proposition ahead OF that oi ca