Bisbee daily review., 1915-12-12
CITY PEOPLE URGED
TO CO OPERATE WITH
TILLERS OF THE LAND
illinois University Professor Adj
viseS that Soil Enrichment Is
Necessary in All Lands, and
Adds Cooperation Will Help.


Necessary in All Lands, and
Adds Cooperation Will Help.
NEW YORK, Dec. 10.-Declaring
that the abandoned farms of the East.
em States might well be worth S4OO
an acre. instead OF 500. Or. Cyril G.
/ Hopkins of the University of Illinois
today sounded note of warning as
TO the need for permanent and scienti-
F hc soil enrichment throughout the
agricultural 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 As
ISOLATION Of Life Insurance Presidents,
which is considering various prob
lens involved in loaning life insurance
funds on farm mortgages. At present
about six hundred and sixty million
dollars of life insurance money is
loaned on farms, principally in the
South and West.
The most important and the most
neglected factor I'm American agricul
tur is that Of soil enrichment" said
Or. Hopkins. For three centuries
the American farmer has drawn the
support of the nation from the fertill-
, ty contained in our virgin soils. with
widespread soil depletion as a result.
When the land became too poor to
raise a profitable crop by the ordinary
means of soil stimulation. the Ameri-
can 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.
THE Improvement Of seed. the use
of tile drainage, the invention and
I general adoption OF labor-saving ma
ehinery, the development Of cheap and
rapid means of transportation, and
the opening Of the worlds markets tc
our products, have all combined tc
make possible and to encourage rapid
deterioration of American soils. CroT
rotation is good farm practice, but
it makes possible more rapid deple
ton 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 form land agricuturally
abandoned from 1880 to 1910 was
9.S9O.SS4 acres in New England, New
York. New Jersey and Pennsylvania
] a state like Massachusetts should
entirely stop farming. She fact would
be made known and emphasized the
country over and the world around
but if another equal area of improved
farm land is to be agriculturally
abandoned, # could be so selected as
10 stop farming i'm eight states, includ
ing New Hampshire, Vermont, Massa
chussetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut
New Jersey, Delaware, and either
Maine of Florida. In orthe words, the
combined area Of improved farm
found in these eight states in 1910
was less than 9,8O9,834 acres.
Already the question Of food has
begun 10 exert pressure in this coun
try During the last census decade
our population increased by q pei
cent. the same in percentage but fan
- greater in the absolute than during
the preceding decade; but there was
less than 2 per cent increase in food
= cereals and no increase in food-prod
uring animals BY five-year averages
: centered on 1900 and $40, respectively
our average annual expectations de
creased from 215 million to 103 MILL
on bushels of wheat, from 1872 million
TO only 48 million bushels of corn, ant
from $500 million to 1900 million
! pounds of meat, in order that We
might feed our increase Of Is million
people
"The only hope of the future lies
4 in the application of science and edu
cation and honesty to the control Of