The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1921-10-27
WARNS NATION
OF SOIL famine
u. S. Wastes Millions of Tons of
Fertility-Cermany Much
Better Farmer.

Warning that the United States can
not hope to care for the populations
of the future unless more care is
given to restoring the fertility of the
soil, was uttered in an address deliv.
cred by Mr. C. H. Mcdowell before
the Chicago section of the American
Chemical society
Although our country is fifteen
times as large as Germany" said Mr..
Mcdowell, eve produce only the same
amount of barley and not quite twice
as much oats. Germany produces six
times as many potatoes and twelve
times as much rice When the war
broke out, Germany had five millions
of farms, averaging fifteen acres, and
we had $4,000 farms, averaging 1873
acres. These German farms produced
forty per cent more wheat, rye, barley,
oats and potatoes, taken together,
than we produced Within the last
thirty years Germany has increased
her yield per capita from fifteen to
twenty-nine bushels, while the United
States increased from fourteen to six
teen. Germany increased her per
acre yield of wheat from 10 to 30
bushels; the United States from Is
to Is bushels; Germany increased the
yield of barley from "a to 80 bushels
the United States from "a to 24.3
bushels With only One-fifteenth of
the land area, Germany shows an ag-
ricultural efficiency of about six times
that of the United States.
I'VE are at the present time on trial
in our United States agriculture
continued Mr.. Mcdowell. with
sparse population and broad area
of uncultivated lands a nation can
choose between extensive and inten-
sive agriculture, but with a densely
populated country there can be no
choice. The intensive method must
be followed. We of the United States
have been a wasteful people. We have
had too much land and have moved
from state to state in search of the
more fertile spots of land, and neg
lected to maintain the producing
power of our conquered area.
Millions Of Tons of Fertility Wasted.
Large populations and low crop
Yields added the speaker, do not
go together. In this country our pop
ulation is rapidly growing and we
must more fully utilize Natures
stores in our future development. Our
population is increasing and our lands
at the same time are being depleted.
Our bitches are all lined with the fer
tility of our farms that they were dug
to drain. From our rivers we lose
annually OO,OOO,OOO tons of fertility,
thereby diminishing productivity at
a rapid rate. Our sewer pipes are
taking from our farms $4,000 900 ions
of fertility annually. The crops that
are taken from the field, and never
get back in any form, take 100000
more tons of fertility from our lands
each year.
.'In the face of these undeniable
facts" declared Mr.. Mcdowell, "our
population will be, according to Mr..
Edward M. East, of Harvard, more
than doubled by the year 2000 At
the same time he shows that, accord
ing to our present methods Of agricul
ture and our present rates of food
and clothing consumption, 197,000,O00
is our ultimate population limit"
Mr.. Mcdowell urged that the time
had come for the engineer, and espe-
cially the chemist, to consider what
must be done to maintain the agricul-
tural efficiency of the country, and to
replenish the soil. The engineer must
aid in preventing erosion of the land
and the devastation of the forests,
while the problem of the chemist is
fertility.