Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-07-19
.SO|L ROBBERY
The farm crime
Failure Of American Farmers
To Restore Fertility Is
Social OffeDSe
Methods Should be Employed
To Preserve Natural
Richness Of Soil

Nothing Is now claiming 81 much
earnest attention from conservation
lists along agricultural lines as the
venality with which the American far
mer abused the soil from which he
derived his sustenance and his wealth.
Nowadays it is looked upon as immor-
al for the farmer to get all he can out
Of the soil without exercising an ear
nest endeavor to put back into 1t as
nearly as possible as much vitality
as he had robbed it OF. A writer in
Farm and Fireside says the farmers
OF Europe do not talk about worn-out
farm lands as do the farmers of
America. They give more careful at
tention to the soil and get in return
better results. Along that line the
writer says:
The American farmer has swept
across the continent, leaving aban-
doned farms and wornout fields in his
wake, until now We have come to the
point where all our arabic land has
been occupied, and We can no longer
wear it out and abandon it. We must
not only maintain ourselves on the
land we have, w must maintain q
population that will soon be double
and treble what it now is.
Where should We look for informa-
ton if not to the countries of an
equal degree Of civilization that are
much older than u W and have a
much greater population III proportion
to their area? In Europe r
farm lands that have been in cultiva-
ton for a thousand years and are
producing larger crops than W fer
tile virgin soils, and NO n ever
thinks of-these farms wearing out.
On the other hand, they become
more valuable and more productive
year by year. 1t is a notable fact that
has been repeated over and over to
the American farmer, that the
average production per acre OF the
European countries, particularly Eng
land, France and Germany, is over
twice the average production of the
same crops in the United States.
Wherein lies the difference? 1t is
not because European lands are nat.
urally more fertile than American,
but because they are Harmed in.
teneively. The land is better pre-.
pared for the seed, plowed deeper,
worked more before seeding, and as
far as possible the lands that are to
be planted in the spring are plowed
in the fall and allowed to weather
during the winter, a system that de-
serves to be greatly extended on the
American farms, especially in our
lands.
Every day the necessity becomes
greater for the American farmer to
pay some attention to the preserva-
ton and regeneration of the soil. The
time must come when the farmer who
neglects methods toward that end will
be outlawed, for it is hardly today
less than a crime against his kind.
When the population was small in
this country and there was an abund.
ance of good land to be had for the
occupancy of it, few thought of it.
But now the land is practically all
taken up, and the day seems to be in
sight when the growth of population
will enlarge to it's full capacity or
more the demands upon the land, it
is not wonderful that those who take
intelligently into account the welfare
of the country and its people are dis
posed to look upon robbery OF the
soil as SO wrongful as to be almost
criminal.
The time must come when society |
will take into account the obligation
of the mar who takes out of the soil
all he can make it produce and he will
JOe required to put some vitality back
into it, and when he who neglects or
refuses to do SO will be called to &C
count to society for his failure.