Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 85.djvu/383

Rh might easily be trebled or quadrupled. Why, then, trouble about adding to the area of indifferent land when so much of what has already been reclaimed, upon which the first capital outlay of clearing, fencing, roadmaking, etc., has been accomplished, is not doing its duty? We are at once confronted by the human factor in the problem. The existing educational agencies which will have to bring about better farming will only slowly become effective, and however imperfect they still may be in England, they are mainly so because of the lack of response upon the part of the farmers. The present occupiers of the land do obtain in many cases a very inadequate return from it, but they make some sort of a living and they hold it up against others who, though they want land, can not be guaranteed to use it any better. Improved farming means more enterprise, more knowledge, often more capital, and the man who can bring these to the business is far rarer than the man who, given a piece of land even of the poorest quality, will knock a living out of it by sheer hard work and doggedness. While, then, there should be no slackening in our efforts to improve the quality of the management of existing land, there is a case for also using every effort to increase the cultivable area; indeed, it is probable that for some time to come the second process will add most to both the agricultural production and the agricultural population.

Let us now consider what are the factors which determine the fertility of the land that is first brought into cultivation and remains the backbone of farming in the old settled countries. Foremost comes rainfall, and the distribution is almost as important as the amount. Winter rain is more valuable than summer, and though cereal-growing is none the worse and may even obtain better results with a rainless summer, stock-raising and the production of fodder crops are the better for a rainfall that is distributed fairly evenly throughout the year. Rainfall, again, must bear some relation to temperature; some of the best farming in the eastern counties of England is done on an average rainfall of 20 inches; there are great areas in South Africa with the same average rainfall that are little better than desert. In temperate regions we may say that the naturally fertile land requires a rainfall of from 20 to 50 inches per annum, not too much segregated into seasons and some at least falling in the winter.

If the rainfall is excessive or the drainage inadequate to carry it off, the formation of peat is induced, resulting in such uncultivated areas as the bogs of Ireland and the moors of eastern England, Holland and Germany.

Given suitable rainfall and temperature the texture of the soil becomes a factor of importance; if too coarse and sandy, so little of the rainfall is retained that we get all the effects of drought secondarily produced. In itself the open texture of a coarse sandy soil is favorable