PAST SELF REDEMPTION
"BUT I have rambled far from the subject assigned me," Percy
continued.
"That's only because I interrupt and ask so many side questions,"
replied Mr. Thornton, "but I hope yet to learn more about those
'suitable conditions' for nitrogen-fixation and nitrification. It
begins to look as though the nitrogen cycle deviates a good deal
from a true circle, and nature seems to need some help from us to
make that element circulate as fast as we need it. I confess, too,
that this method appeals to me much more than the
twenty-cent-a-pound proposition of the fertilizer agent."
"Yes, indeed," added Miss Russell; "and if we had to spend three
dollars an acre on this farm our 'Slough of Despond' would be worse
than the slough, or swamp, Mr. Johnston has told us about."
"I fear the practical and profitable improvement of an acre of this
land is more likely to cost thirty dollars than three," said Percy.
"Oh, for the land's sake!" came the ejaculation.
"Yes, 'for the land's sake,'" repeated Percy; "and for the sake of
those who must depend upon the land for their support for all time
hereafter."
"How ridiculous! Thirty dollars an acre for the improvement of land
that will not bring ten dollars to begin with!"
"It is better to look at the other end of the undertaking," said
Percy. "Suppose you invest thirty dollars an acre and in a few years
make your ten-dollar land produce as much as our two-hundred dollar
land!"
"But, Mr. Johnston; do you realize how much money it would require
to expend thirty dollars an acre on nine hundred acres?" continued
Miss Russell, with stronger accentuation.
"Twenty-seven thousand dollars," was the simple reply.
"Well, Sir," she said, "you are welcome to this whole farm for ten
thousand dollars."
"I am not wishing for it," he answered. "In fact I would not take
this farm as a gift, if I were obliged to keep it and pay the taxes
and had no other property or source of income."
"That's just the kind of talk I've been putting up to these girls,"
said Mr. Thornton. "By the time we live and pay about two hundred
dollars a year taxes on all this land, I tell you, there is nothing
left; and we'd been worse off than we are, except for the sale we
made to the railroad company."
"Well, the Russells lived here very well for more than a hundred
years," she retorted, "and my grandfather supported one nigger for
every ten acres of the farm, but I would like to know any farmers
about here who can put thirty dollars an acre, or even ten dollars
an acre, back into their soil for improvement."
"The problem is indeed a serious one," said Percy. "Unquestionably
much of the land in these older states is far past the point of
possible self-redemption under the present ownership. Land from
which the fertility has been removed by two hundred years of
cropping, until it has ceased to return a living to those who till
it, cannot have its fertility restored sufficiently to again make
its cultivation profitable, except by making some considerable
investment in order to replace those essential elements the supply
of which has become so limited as to limit the crop yields to a
point where their value is below the cost of production. Even on the
remaining productive lands in the North Central States, if we are
ever to adopt systems of permanent agriculture, it must be done
while the landowners are still prosperous. If the people of the corn
belt repeat the history of the Eastern States until their lands
cease to return a profit above the total cost of production, then
they, too, will have nothing left to invest in the improvement of
their lands."
"But their fertility could still be restored by outside capital?"
suggested Mr. Thornton. "I know very well that is the only solution
of our problem."
"Well, Tom, I would like to know where the outside capital is coming
from," said Miss Russell.
"Marry rich," he replied. "Don't make such a blunder as your sister
did."
"I fear that Mr. Johnston will suggest that we sell some more land,"
remarked Mrs. Thornton.
"All right," replied her sister; "and we will sell it to him. If he
won't take the whole farm as a gift, we'll cut it to any length he
wishes. Do you consider 'Ten Acres Enough,' Mr. Johnston; or would
you prefer 'Three Acres and Liberty?' We'll do our best to enable
you to enjoy 'The Fat of the Land.' Just tell us how large a farm
you want, I know already that you do not want nine hundred acres."
"My dear Miss Russell," said Percy. "This is so sudden"; whereupon
Mr. Thornton nearly fell from his chair and Mrs. Thornton laughed
heartily at the sister's expense who blushed as she might have done
twenty years before.
"However," Percy resumed, "if you should decide to dispose of about
half of that seven hundred acres which you use only as a safety bank
for most of your two hundred dollars in taxes, please consider me a
prospective taker."
"Take her," said Mr. Thornton, and again confusion reigned.
"Tom is so anxious to get rid of his sister-in-law that he reminds
me of the man whose mother-in-law died," said Miss Russell. "He was
too far from home to return to the usual funeral, and they
telegraphed him the sad news and asked if they should embalm,
cremate, or bury the remains. He wired back: 'Embalm, cremate, and
bury'"
"That matter of outside capital is by no means so substantial as it
might seem," said Percy. "It is worth while to consider how little
real wealth there would be in America if the remaining rich lands
should become impoverished. The railroads would at once cease to pay
dividends, and those who are now millionaires in railroad stock
would find themselves on the rapid road to poverty. The manufacturer
of finished products from the raw materials raised on the farm, the
manufacturer of agricultural implements, and the great urban
population whose income is from the trade in raw materials and
manufactured goods would soon see their wealth shrivel. The great
sky scrapers of the cities would be left for the owls and bats to
harbor in, if our agricultural lands ceased to yield their great
harvests. Meanwhile the farming people would continue to live upon
the meager products still produced from the impoverished soil, even
though they had no surplus food to ship into the cities. Human labor
would replace that of domestic animals on the farm, just as it has
done in China and India, in part because man's labor is worth more
than that of the beast, when measured only by the amount of food
consumed, and in part because a thousand bushels of grain will
support five times as many people can be supported for the same time
upon the animal products that could be produced by feeding the
grain."
"Oh, that is such a gloomy view to take of it," said Miss Russell.
"And all the world loves an optimist," replied Percy laughingly.
"Soils do not wear out; there is no poor land; the farms are better
and the crops larger than ever before; and we are the people of the
world's greatest nation, with an assured future glory which
surposses all conception."
"As soon as we get the canal dug," suggested Mr. Thornton.
"Yes, we will surely be able to dig that Panama ditch," said Percy;
"and probably our resources will last to cut a gash or two in our
own interior, if we don't build too many battle ships. You know
Egypt built three great pyramids before her resources became reduced
to such an extent that the people required all their energies to
secure a living."