New Britain herald., 1915-12-10
FOR FARMS
 0F EASTERN STATES
pr. Hopkins Says They Might Be
 Worth $4OO an Acre

New York, Dec. 10.-Declaring that the need for permanent and scientific states might we'll be worth s4OO an acre, instead of $2O, pr. Cyril G. Hop k1ns of the University of Illinois to- day sounded note of warning as to the need for permanent and scietific soil enrichment throughout the agri- cultural lands of the United States-in the west as well as the east He strongly urged cooperation to this end on the part of city people Dr. Hopkins made his plea before the ninth annual convention of the Asso- citation of Life Insurance Presidents, which is considering various problems ivolved in loaning life insurance funds on farm mortgages. At present about six hundred and sixty million dollars or hte insurance money is loaned on farms, principally in the south and west.
 "The most important and the most neglected factor in American agricul- ture is that of soil enrichment" said
 
 American farmer has drawn the SUD- port of the nation from the fertility contained in our virgin soils, with widespread soil depletion as a result when the land became too poor to raise profitable crop by the ordinary means of soil stimulation, the Amer 1can farmer has, as a general rule, al- lowed the farm to go back to nature, and he has either moved to newer lands or joined the increasing urban population.
 Causes of Deterioration.
 "The improvement of seed, the use or tile drainage, the invention and general adoption of labor-saving ma chinery, the development of cheap and rapid means of transportation and the opening of the worlds markets to our farm products, have all combined to make possible and to encourage ra- pid deterioration of American soils. Crop rotation is good farm practice, but it makes possible more rapid soil depletion because of the larger crops produced where insect pests and plant diseases are avoided by such rotation.
 The United States bureau of cen- sus reports that the aggregate area of improved farm land agriculturally abandoned from 1880 to 1910 was 9,S09,S34 acres in New England New York. New Jersey and, Pennsylvania If state like assachusetts should entirely stop farming, the fact would be made known and emphasized the country over and the world around, but, if another equal area of inn proved farm land is to be agricultur- ally abandoned it could be so selected as to stop farming in eight states. in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa ch usetts, Rhode Island Con- necticut, New Jersey, Delaware, and either Maine or Florida. In other words, the combined area of inn proved farm land found in these eight states in 1910 was less than 9,809,S34 acres.
 Question of Food.
 Already the question of food has begun to exert pressure in this coun- try. During the last census decade our population increased by twenty enc per cent, the same in percentage but far greater in the absolute than during the preceding decade; but there were less than two per cent. in crease in food cereals and no in crease in food-producing animals. By five-year averages, centered on 1900 and 1910, respectively, our average annual exportations decreased from 215 million to 1O3 million bushels of wheat, from 162 million to only AS million bushels of corn, and from D. 5OO million to 1,5O0 million pounds of meat, Tn order that we might feed our increase of 16 million people.
 "The only hope of the future lies in the application of science and ed ucation and hoesty to the control of idustry and agriculture, and let us understand and never forget that agriculture is the basic support of all industry and that the fertility of the soil is the absolute support of every form of agriculture.
 "The fertility of the soil is well un- der the control of the farmer if he is provided with accurate information and with the necessary capital to enable him to put into practice ra- tional systems of truly permanent agriculture. There was no need what ever that the cultivated farm lands of the eastern states should have been depleted. Lying at the door of our greatest markets, with the applica- ton of knowledge and With such en- couragement as should have been given those lands could easily have been preserved and even increased in fertility until their present value might well have been not twenty dol lars, but four hundred dollars an acre.