The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1911-09-23
CONSERVATION
OF The SOIL
THIS WILL BE BIG THEME THIS
YEAR AT ANNUAL coNSER-
WALTON CONGRESS.


forty years from 1850 to 1900 the Unit
ed States lost more fertility on its old
acreage than 1t gained by the addi-
tbnn OF virgin acres. America has
been mining it's soil rather than farm
ing 1t.
These statements seem rather ex-
travagant but they are made on the
authority OF Henry Wallace of Iowa,
whose word about agriculture and ag-
ricultural conditions is generally ac-
cepted without question. 1t Is Mr.. Wal
lace who characterized the American
agrtculturists of the last century as
soil pirates rather than soil farmers.
Mr.. Wallace has been farmer him
self for the last fifty years and at
the same time careful student OF
farming. He Is president of the ma
tional conservation congress which is
to meet in Kansas City, Sept. 1921,
and 1t Is largely through his motion
that this conservation is to deal al
most exclusively with soil conserya-
ton. President Taft will speak at the.
opening session Of the congress, Sept.
rs, and conservation will be- his SUBJ
ject.
The two previous congresses hardly
touched the matter Of the farmer and
the farm. In Seattle two years ago
forests were almost the sole topic; in
st. Paul last year public lands were
discussed mainly. Mr.. Wallace be-
lieves that soil conservation is at
least as much Importance to America
today as the conservation of the for
ests and protection of public lands.
Soil fertility is a problem quite as
important to the man who consumes
farm products as to the man who pro-
duces Them" said Mr.. Wallace at the
conservation headquarters here to-
day. Neither the farmer nor the
consumer realizes the extent to which
our unrivaled soil fertility has been
wasted. Although untold millions of
virgin acres needing neither AK nor
thing spades have been added to our
cultivated area year by year for fifty
years, 1t is only in the last few years
that the average yield per acre has
shown tendency to increase; and
that small increase has been due TO
awakened agricultural departments in
state and nation, the real study of ag-
ment stations.
w 4hOIG Luhn LDAIy y6dKS pre-
vtous to the last decade we have lost
more fertility on the old acreage than
we gained by the addition of the vir-
gin acres. We have, speaking gener-
ally, being mining, not farming, our soil
fertility and sending 1t all over the
world at the bare cost of mining. On
some of the best soils naturally in the
world we produce less wheat per acre
than any nation on the old world save
Russia and India, where the soil has
been farmed for thousands of years
Enough has been done to show that
we can farm as well as mine fertility,
create as well as waste.
THE conservation of this soil fer
tility, the greatest asset remaining to
the American people. will be the main
burden of the discussion of the third
national conservation congress. It
win meet in Kansas City, in the very
heart of the country that must feed
and clothe the hungry nations. The
cities are beginning to realize that
they must have q bread and butter
foundation under them and are dnter-
ested in farm problems as never be-
fore.
1.-THE farmers life is quite as impor-
tant as his work. In order to make
farm life satisfying to the boys and
girls who are growing up on these
prairies, an effort viii be made at this
congress to develop the social side as
well as the industrial side; to interest
the farmers wife and daughters as
well as the farmer and his sons. The
educational and religious side of the
farm will be considered as well as it's
material side, and by those best quail
fled to speak on this important phase
Of farm life. The best methods of co.
operation viii have place on the pro-
gramme. In short, nothing which VII
tally concerns the farmer and his fam
lily win be out of place on the pro-
gramme at Kansas City.
Il earnestly ask the cooperation
Of every farmer and every farm or
ganization, and every man who is in
terested in the development OF char
acter on the farm or in the town. We
can add In the next five years TWEEN
ty-five per cent to the yields of the
crops grown on the farms of the Unit
ed States, and thus put the means of
cheaper living within the reach OF our
constantly growing city population
while at the same time bring about a
period of better living on the farm.