The Mena weekly star., 1921-01-27
FERTILE SOIL IS BASIS OF FARMING
Prof. Stevenson, Iowa Expert, Deliv- CTS Important Message to Farmers of Arkansas--Must Keep Lands
 Built Up to Succeed.

Little Rock, Jan. 20.-"Arkansas farmers should think of the soil fer tility problem in terms of dollars and cents" said Prof W. H. Stevenson, professor of soils at Iowa State Col llege in an address at the Hotel Mar ion auditorium.
 Professor Stevenson is one of the foremost authorities on soil subjects m the United States. His lecture was illustrated with stereopticon views.
 Fertile soil is the basis of success ful agriculture" said Professor Stew enson, and in Iowa we realize that agriculture is the basis of our success. 1t IS simply question of how to keep our great, basic business successful. acres of land and practically 98 per cent of this is entirely fit for the blow. In the older parts of the state We have been farming the lands for 100 years, and farming very satisfac- torily. But we realize that we cannot go on without paying some attention to keeping our soils built up. We stand at the parting of the ways in Iowa. We must go into this study of soils if our agriculture is to be per manent, and agriculture is our job in Iowa.
 Same Principles in Arkansas.
 Soil building principles are the same in Arkansas and Iowa. We have simply led the way and 1 hope you will go on even farther than we. As l understand it, you have more far mers than We have. Agriculture is ] your great business and unless you have permanent agriculture, unless your soils keep up their fertility, you cannot reach the pinnacle of success.
 I am talking to you in the midst of time when you are discouraged over the whole business of agricul- ture. If this is really a passing con- dition, one out of which you will come, as 1 am sure we shall come out of it in my state, then you are not alone in your agricultural problems. With 15,- 900, 900 acres in corn, oats and other crops selling now at less than the cost of production, we are facing the same problem a you But we realize that. We must keep our soils so fertile that , we can produce our crops so cheaply as to meet world competition This is what we are trying to do. If we can do this, whether prices are up or down. we can go right ahead with our job, the business of agriculture.
 The Iowa Soil Survey.
 With this in view, we have estab lished in Iowa soil survey, under which two men work during the sum- mer making maps describing the soil on every mans farm in the county surveyed. We send out a report with ] q A.. fo Raaatr This is good as far as 1t goes. But you will fail with your soil survey if it stops there, because the farmer Is not satisfied with merely map. The farmer wants to know, not what kind of soil he has, but what to do with 1t. l Iowa has 70 experiment farms. We have classified 125 soils in 40 out of | 99 counties in the survey, and each of the soils presents different problem 1 in the experiment field over Iowa. We then can tell A farmer how he can l double the yield of clover on his land.
 My experience is that a man doesn get far with a farmer in learned talk. We have found that we do not make much progress in mere talking in Iowa. When our crops are ready for harvesting on our experiment fields, we get as many farmers as we can to come to the fitids, and there we show them one crop grown on land that has had nothing done to it, and crop grown on land given special attention. This works. Iowa farmers have enough good sense that when they see they believe, and when they believe they lpractice. The matter of soil fertility will take care of itself as soon as you have results to show the farmers