Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 June 1915 — Raise Things [ARTICLE]

Raise Things

It is the normal function of land to raise things. If any man doubts this let him try to keep anything from growing on a tract of land for a few I years and-see what time, toll and cash is costs him. Nature has made land to raise things and it will do so in spite of any but the most drastic treatment But.nature does not ask land to give of its substance to raise things without some return. Whatever the land produces in a natural state, whether grasses, trees or animals, in due course of nature tit all goesdiack to the land. In past generations many men have overlooked this fact or disregarded It They have compelled their land to raise crops, they have hauled those crops away, they have failed to put anything back. They have “rested” their land by changing from corn to< oats, from oats to wheat, and so on, until the'land has refused to grow these useful crops and has; sought to rest itself by growing only/ stuff that man would- not find It profitable to take off. Natural restoration by this means .is a -slow process—but let us remember that nature is, never rushed fnr • time -or concerned/ about the finances of its methods. Raise things, but never forget 4he/obligation, sternly . imposed by nature, of putting something back.