no.  On the contrary, under the soothing influence of the most pleasing and acceptable doctrine that our soil is an indestructible, immutable asset, which cannot be depleted, our exportation of rock phosphate has increased during the years of the present century from six hundred and ninety thousand tons in 1900, to one-million three hundred and thirty thousand tons in 1908, an increase of practically one hundred per cent., in accordance with the published reports of the United States Geological Survey.

But I am writing to you, Mr. Hill, not only to thank you for what you have said and shown in the twenty-eight pages above referred to, but also in part to repay my obligation to you by giving you some correct information, which I am altogether confident you will appreciate; namely, that, while you are a graduate student or past master in your knowledge of the supply and demand of the world’s markets, you are just entering the kindergarten class in the study of soil fertility, as witness the following extracts from the one erroneous page of your article.

“Right methods of farming, without which no agricultural country such as this can hope to remain prosperous, or even to escape eventual poverty, are not complicated and are within the reach of the most modest means.  They include a study of soils and seeds, so as to adapt the one to the other; a diversification of industry, including the cultivation of different crops and the raising of live stock; a careful rotation of crops, so that the land will not be worn out by successive years of single cropping; intelligent fertilizing by the system of rotation, by cultivating leguminous plants, and, above all, by the economy and use of every particle of fertilizing material from stock barns and yards; a careful selection of grain used for seed; and, first of all perhaps in importance, the substitution of the small farm, thoroughly tilled, for the large farm, with its weeds, its neglected corners, its abused soil, and its thin product.  This will make room for the new population whose added product will help to restore our place as an exporter of foodstuffs.  Let us set these simple principles of the new method out again in order: 

"First—­The farmer must cultivate no more land than he can till thoroughly.  With less labor he will get more results.  Official statistics show that the net profit from one crop of twenty bushels of wheat to the acre is as great as that from two of sixteen, after original cost of production has been paid.

"Second—­There must be rotation of crops.  Ten years of single cropping will pretty nearly wear out any but the richest soil.  A proper three or fiveyear rotation of crops actually enriches the land.

"Third—­There must be soil renovation by fertilizing; and the best fertilizer is that provided by nature herself—­barnyard manure.  Every farmer can and should keep some cattle, sheep, and hogs on his place.  The farmer and his land cannot prosper until stock raising becomes an inseparable part of agriculture.  Of all forage fed to live stock at least one-third in cash value remains on the land in the form of manure that soon restores worn-out soil to fertility and keeps good land from deteriorating.  By this system the farm may be made and kept a source of perpetual wealth.”