Arizona republican., 1911-10-01
HAS REAL MESSAGE University Man Talks To
 The Farmers HE GIVES GOOD ADVICE
Questions of Soil Fertility and Permanency of Agri- culture Are Given Thor ough Treatment by Hi nois Man.

| conservation congress at Kansas City | contained deeper thought more elo- quently expressed than that of Cyril | c. Hopkins. of the University of IT,
 linois. who spoke on Soil Fertility
 and Permanent Agriculture" The ad- ! dress was as follows:
 | As agriculture is the basis of all in dustry, so the fertility of the soil is
 the basic support of every form of | agriculture. Without productive land l there could be no American agricul-
 ture and no American prosperity. The most important material problem of
 the United States is to restore, to in 1 crease, and to permanently maintain the fertility and productive power of | our farm lands. In comparison with | this problem others fade almost to in | significance; and we do well to pause | in the rush and hurry of our busy l business life to measure the agricul- l tural record of the past and to con
 slider the possibilities of the future | come before this national congress
 of patriotic, progressive and influen- ! tial men and women not to present theories or opinions, but facts and data, which deserve and should com mand your immediate serious cOnsid- eratiOn, and your subsequent persist ence and effective action.
 Intelligent optimism is right and ad- mirable. but blind bigotry paraded as optimism is dangerous and condemn
 able. Truth, crushed to earth. shall
 rise again; the eternal years of God are hers" and this congress has be-
 fore it the duty and the right to un-
 cover the facts. to face the truth and
 to plan intelligently for the solution
 of this mighty problem.
 That vast areas of land once culti-
 vated with profit in the original thir-
 teen states now lie agriculturally
 abandoned is common knowledge; and
 that the corn lands of the great corn
 belt and wheat belt of the North
 Central states are even now under
 going the most rapid soil depletion
 ever witnessesed is known to all who possess the facts.
 The crop statistics of the United
 States now cover two 2O-year periods,
 and half a decade on the next A con-
 parison of these two periods shows
 the average acre-yeld in the United
 States to have increased only one
 bushel for wheat and one-half bushel
 for rye: while corn decreased one and one-half bushels and potatoes de- creased seven bushels. per acre These crops constitute the basis of our hu- man foods, even our supply of meat being largely dependent upon the corn crop. Thus. in spite of the vast areas of new land put under cultivation dur ing the last twenty years. and in spite of the improvements in dredge ditching and tile drainage. in seed. | and in implements and methods of cultivation. the average acre. yield shows little or no increase: but in striking contrast the census returns | shown an increase in the population of contiguous continental United | States from 3s million to % million | people. during the last forty years: ] and in spite of the fact that to feed ! our rapidly increasing population We have extended our area of cultivated | crops beyond the humid and far into I the semi-arid regions, and in spite | of reducing our corn exports from | 212 million bushels, during the last | decade. nevertheless the most com i mon topic discussed in recent years | Is the high cost of plain living in these United States.
 These are American facts; and, while there need he no sensation. 1 there is need for sense, In their con sideration. A few people can live on blind optimism or hot air. but something more substantial will he required to feed the progeny of 92 and added millions of inn migrants. It is said that the high civilization of the ancient Mediter- countries went down into the Dark Ages with laughter-Darll Ages which covered the face of the earth for a thousand years and which still exist for most of our own Aryan race in Russia and in India. where more people are hungry day by day. and year by year, than the total pop ulation of the United States
 The problem which now confronts America is nothing less than the main tenance of prosperity for ourselves and of civilization for our children: for civilization depends upon educa- tion, and only a prosperous nation can afford the general education of its people Property is at once help less, and soon ignorant and indolen, An impoverished people cannot have adequate schools or schooling.
 No greater problem ever confronted any nation than now confronts the United States, but the solution is plain: In a word. we must increase production and limit reproduction. es- pecially the reproduction of the unfit To solve half of the problem is not sufficient; and, in passing, must em- phasiZe the fact that with the most practical scientific systems of farm ing applied to all the farm lands of the United States, there is still some where a limit to the highest possible production of food and clothing ma terials in this country; but there is no limit to the reproduction and in crease of population except the star