The New York herald., 1922-10-15
ED STATES MAY HAVE TO BUY FOODSTUFFS ABROAD
UNLESS WASTEFUL METHODS ARE STOPPED EXPERTS SA

I European agriculture. on the other
hand. has been experiencing the pain
OF diminishing returns Year by year
they have faced the necessity Of get
ting moro out OF their lands. They
have succeeded remarkably well, but
only because they have put more man
power, more toll. into thir work.
I'VE are now entering the era of
diminishing returns a person IN this
country"
Frederick J. Nash, who says he
learned more sitting on the end OF
log with the great Mark Hopkins.
president OF Williams College, than
from all the books he ever perused.
adds to this foodstuffs discussion:
your contention is not only correct
but timely when you urge the Ameri-
can people to give heed that they keep
full their national bread basket, and
when you warn them that so long as
current food production methods be
employed the quantity OF food avail
able for each American will steadily
decrease.
'Still another thing Is true: The
continuance OF these methods will
make IL possible for the prices Of food
stuffs to fail. There must be attention
to efficiency of tillage, of farm hand
ling. and OF distribution: for in the
first there Is woful lack of economic
operation and adequate agricultural
science; and in the other two occur
wastes to cause the true economist to
weep.
However, another element enters
ynt N ef4t bo+ mill NJ ha Aa.
MED. And that is fertilization of the
lands. We must put back into the
soils If we are TO take out from the
soils. We must replenish the lands
with the food on which plant life sub
sists, and that we have not done at all
adequately. 1 wish not to be over
severe, but venture the assertion that
not one person in twenty who has to
do with the subject knows the scien-
tific essence Of the process of fertil
izing agricultural soils. AS a people,
we shall have to learn how to fertiliZe,
as the European peoples have been
forced 10 learn IL In the hard school Of
vast populations seeking TO exist on
restricted areas OF farrnlands.
"Our era Of restricted-relatively re-
stricted-farmlands is at hand. 1t will
be the next phase of national eco
nomic study and improvement. The
day of easy food getting has passed
Hence, we shall have. as a people and
as a Government, TO go at this prob
lem, and see to It that the nation
arouses to keen realization of the eco
nomic and social gravity of the thing
we face:
"A permanent pinch OF food scarcity,
with its consequent lowering of the
standard of living. and the coinciden-
tai narrowing OF the scope of national
vision"
Mr.. Nash. who has devoted his life
to scientific studying OF foodstuffs
problems, concludes with the assertion
that the ancient Chinese system OF
agriculture has for centuries main
tained that enormous population, pro-
viding most Of the food consumed
there, by regularly returning to the
soils the chemical constituents taken
out by growing plants. the potash. nj
trates and phosphates. These, he be-
lieves, may be found IN the United
States IN sufficient quantities by find
ing how TO get peat and kelp together.
For, he asserts, peat and kelp contain
those elements in almost ideal proper
tons.