Show TO CONSERVE PLANT FOOD IN THE SOIL SOI Sooner or Later Tiller TUler Must Qu Quit t Robbing Soil and Feed It as He Feeds Flocks By Dy H. H L. L RUSSELL Wisconsin Exp rf- rf meat ment Station The processes of soil formation are roe continually in the making Weather Weather- lag Is slowly but constantly releasing g gnew new plant food while le at th the same same tide Une e the processes of depletion erosion leaching and waste are lessening the tte value of this asset i iTo To conserve this bank account anIto and anI and to transmit it unimpaired t to future gen generations rations Is is' a 3 duty which the h hu human human hu- hu man race owes to posterity but butas as as with nearly all of our natural r re resources sources man has wasted more than behas he be has used In e earlier years years vears when knowledge did did not exist or ir was Imperfectly Imperfectly Im urn- perfectly appreciated wanton practices practices practices tices led to rapid depletion or or tion Every virgin area that has been opened up for settlement by man has had its pioneer generation of soil miners miners min ruin ers but If future human life is to Je- Je receive adequate from the 1 soil sooner or later r the tiller soil must quit I robbing the land and feed his soil ashe as ashe I he feeds leeds his flocks Tie The last decade or two has brought the American farmer to a more complete complete com corn realization than he has ever before before be be- before fore known of the duty that lies b before be be- fore him n. n The lessons s that China and Japan learned a thousand years ago or more made their way slowly toward toward toward to to- to- to ward the occidental world Even the teachings of eld England and the plains of Continental Europe fell ell heedless heedless heedless heed heed- less on American ears To our fathers the so called inexhaustible fertIl fertility ty of the magnificent Mississippi Valley could never never be used up but the the thede declining declining de de- de- de clining dining crop yields s of a a. section n whether er it is Is' wheat corn or cotton spell lessening profit and Impairment impairments of lof capital Science has now shown In no terms that as the chain is no stronger than its weakest link so the soil BOll is no richer than its content of its most indispensable element whether it be depleted of its potash or phosphorus phosphorus phosphorus by y long age leaching or r more rapidly by careless crop production matters little The effect is the same |