The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1911-08-11
SAVING T-E SOIL" TrE ONE
IMPORTANT TOPIC At NATION
~ CONSERVATION CONGRESS.

September - 70 =. Conservation OF
,he soil will be the main purpose
OF the meeting in = Paul last year
the main subject was Public
Lands. the year previous it was
Forest Conservation. This time
he meeting De- being held in the
heart Of -he agricultural country.
aud Saving The Soil" is 70 be the
one important topic
Nr. Hl,lwho certainly is studying
agriculture from the dollars and
cent viewpoint as president OF the
great railway system, has made a
study Of what he calls Soil Abuse.
Some Of the results OF investigations
tina, he has been responsible tor
in this line are BEST given in hi,
own words He says
Take the case oc wheat, the
mainstay OF single-crop abuse. Many
OF Ms can remembec when New
York was the great wheat-produc-
ing state OF The Union. The average
WELD o. wheat per acre in New
York for the last 10 years was about
j. bushels For the first five years
OF that 10-year period it was 1s.4
bushels, and FOR the last five years
ia bushels. Farther west. Kan
sas takes high rank as whea,
producer It's average yield per acre
for ,h. last 10 Years was l4l6 bush
els. For the first five Of those
years il was lj14 and for the las,
five wears l2.lS. Up in the North
west. VI nnesotd wheat has made
name all over the world. Her av-
erage yie,d per acre for the same
10 years was 1896 bushels For
the first five years il was l312. and
for the last five l2.N We perceive
here he working OF a uniform law
independent OF location, OF soil, or
OF climate. II is the law OF a dimin.
ishing return due to soil destruction
Apply this 10 the country ar large.
and it reduces agriculture TO the
condition Of a bank whose depos-
itors are steadily drawing out
more money than they put in.
According to the last census the
average annual product per acre OF
the farms Of the whole United
States was worth s1l.3S. II is IL
te more than a respectable rental
in communities where the soil is
cared for ana made 10 give
a reasonable return for cultivation
There are but TWO states in the
Union whose total value OF farm
products was over $50 per acre of
improved land. The great state o.
Illinois gave but s12.4S. and Mime
sofa showed only $S.74 No discrim.
whore all are so much at fault. Ma
ture has given 10 us the most yalu-
able possession ever committed TO
man. Il can never De duplicated.
because there is none like il upon
the face of the earth. And We are
raoking and impoyerishing it exactly
as We are Telling the forests anl
rit.inc the mines. Our soil once
the envy of every other country, the
attraction which draws millions OF
Immigrants across the seas, gave an
average WELD for the whole United
States during the 10 years begin
ming with 1896 o. lJ.5 bushels o.
Whest per acre. Austria and Hun.
gary each produced = bushels per
acre France l9.S. Germany 27,6 and
the United Kingdom 22.2 bushels per
acre. For the same decade our av-
eIage OF oats was less than 80 bush
els, While Germany produced &c and
Great Great Britain a. For barley
tht il-l-f'H are - d-dluSt 80 anu
24.6; for rye l54 against - for
Germany and % for Ireland in the
United Kingdom, Belgium. The Meth
erlands and Denmark a Weld OF more
than 30 bushels of wheat per acre
has been the average for the pas
five years.
The two remedies are as well as
certained az is the evil. Rotation
of crops and the use of fertilizers
act aS tonics upon the soil. We
might expand our resources and add
billions Of dollars TO our national
wealth by conserving soil resources,
instead of exhausting them as We
have the forests and the contents of
our mines. For there is good au-
thority for the assertion that the
farmer could take from the same