Show How Europe Makes I Her Soil F Fertile ertil Toke Take Italy for fOI example Her soils solis were celebrated for Cor their more than two thousand sears ago airo Cato ato erg Vergil and Horace prized agriculture urt I aL above aLe e all III other arts an and Pliny put to together together to- to gether a series erl s of or maxims that show a 11 i truer insight Into the tho essentials of agricultural agricultural agri agri- cultural practice than the teaching of many of or our lur pr present sent day exports experts The soils of at Italy w were re under In- In cultivation before the birth of Christ Christi but after all these years of or constant constant con con- stant cropping the they remain among the most prO productive In the world In 1905 Italy's harvest of oC cereals alone was five o times that of or New York though her area Is but twice as 38 great Counting her systematically cropped forests Cores Is 84 8 per cent of oC her territory Is worked b by men and anil women who un understand the tho uses UlleR of oC th their land lan UK as thoroughly 13 as 3 a mechanic understands t his Ms tools tools' In III France ranc too the soils solis have havo Improved improved Im Im- e proved with cultivation Back In the days of or Napoleon her avern average o per acre yield 1 1 1 of oC wheat was 12 lr f bushels It was more than 20 In 1903 1500 In III tho the same sarno period pc her per acre ere production of or barley barIc bar- bar Ic lej ley rose from Crom to 2 21 24 of oC rye re from 10 6 G to S of oC oats from 17 G 5 to 3 32 And It ItIs ItIs itis Is Interesting to note that the tho great reat increase In the yield of oC cereal crops In InFranco InFranco inFranco Franco occurred before 1860 before 1860 before tho the vast vest potash deposits of Germany German or the tho phosphates of or South Carolina ha had entered en- en terell Into commerce Go from Francis France an and Italy to Belgium an and Holland and nd Germany German to Austria sail anil Hungary Hungar nn and down to the Blacksea Black sea and still HUll tho the story stor of oC the crop records records rec ree In le alwa always the t caino me the longer tho the of oC cropping the lie higher the yield of the tho har harvests Robert Kobert V Bruere In Ht Harpers Harper's Ma Magazine for COI April |