The Farm That Won't Wear Out

Cyril George Hopkins (1866-1919) is the author of Soil Fertility Laboratory Manual (1910), Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture (1910), The Story of the Soil: From the Basis of Absolute Science and Real Life (1911) and The Farm That Won't Wear Out (1913). "IT IS an old saying that "any fool can farm," and this was almost the truth when farming consisted chiefly in reducing the fertility of new, rich land secured at practically no cost from a generous Government. But to restore depleted soils to high productive power in economic systems is no fool's job, for it requires mental as well as muscular energy; and no apologies should be expected from those who necessarily make use of technical terms in the discussion of this technical subject, notwithstanding the common foolish advice that farmers should be given a sort of "parrot" instruction in almost baby language instead of established facts and principles in definite and permanent scientific terms."