"We make no such separation," said Percy. "But to find 'Egypt' on the map, you need only take the State of Illinois and subtract therefrom all that part of the corn belt situated between the Mississippi River and the west line of Indiana. The southern point of 'Egypt' is at Cairo, the Capital, and it is bounded on the east, south, and west, by the Wabash, the Ohio, and the Mississippi; but the north line is not only imaginary, but it is movable. In fact it is always just a few miles farther south, but I think all 'Egyptians' will agree that a sand bar which is being formed below Cairo between the Ohio and the Mississippi is truly 'Egyptian ' territory. If you ever visit in the West do not fail to see 'Egypt.'
"I really hope I may, sometime," she replied. "We have relatives who claim to live in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri, but I think possibly they may all be 'Egyptians,' from what you have told me about the vast area of that great fairy empire. I know I would dearly love to go there."
"'Egypt' is the wheat belt and the fruit belt of Illinois," Percy continued. "One of the grand old men of Illinois, Colonel N. B. Morrison, who was for years a trustee of the State University, used to be called upon for an address whenever he was present at Convocation. He always stated proudly that he lived in the 'Heart of Egypt.' He said the soil there was not so rich perhaps as in the corn belt, but that with plenty of hard work they were able to live and to produce the finest fruit and the greatest men in America. He said they had to work both the top and bottom of their soil, and he explained that they harvested wheat and apples from the top, and then went down about 600 feet and harvested ten thousand tons of coal to the acre, and still left enough to support the earth. I have heard him say that when he was born there was not a mile of railroad in the United States, and that he had during his own lifetime, witnessed the practical agricultural ruin of almost whole States. He used to plead for the University to send some of her scientific men to help them to solve the problem of restoring the fertility of their soils down in 'Egypt'; and I am glad to say that finally the State appropriated sufficient funds so that the Illinois Experiment Station is rapidly securing the exact information needed to make those Southern Illinois lands richer than they ever were.
"I spent several days in 'Egypt' last month and I am planning to make another trip down there next week before deciding definitely about purchasing our poor land farm. I am not sure but the land of 'Egypt' is as poor as we ought to try to build up considering our limited means."
"Oh, do you think so? But Papa's land is not so poor is it?"
"No, it is not so poor in mineral plant food on the sloping areas, but even there it is extremely poor in humus and nitrogen. However, I fear I could not enjoy farming in irregular patches of five or ten acres, and the level lands of Virginia and Maryland are so exceedingly poor, that much time and money and work will be required to put them on a paying basis. There would be no pleasure or satisfaction in merely robbing other farms to build up mine, as some of the prosperous truck farmers and dairymen are doing. I should want to practice a system of soil improvement of unlimited application so that it would not be a curse to the agricultural people, as is the case with the man who builds up his farm only at the expense of other farms.
"We have been speaking of the development of agriculture on the small tracts of cultivable land in the great manufacturing States of New England. But, if we would make a fair comparison with a State like Illinois, we should consider some great agricultural State, as Georgia, for example, which is also one of the original thirteen. Georgia is a larger State than Illinois, and Georgia cultivates as many acres of corn and cotton as we cultivate in corn. But Georgia land cannot be covered with fertilizer made from Illinois corn, nor even with seaweed and fish-scrap from the ocean. Her agriculture must be an independent agriculture, just as the agriculture of Russia, India, and China must be, just as the agriculture of Illinois must be, and as the agriculture of all the great agricultural States must be. What is the result to date? The average yield of corn in Georgia is down to 11 bushels per acre. This is not for half of one township, but the average of four million acres for the last ten years; and this in spite of the fact that Georgia out more for the common acidulated manufactured so-called complete commercial fertilizer than any other State."
"That is appalling," said Adelaide, "but still some larger countries are building up their lands, such as those of Europe."
"In large part by the same methods as the New England truckers and dairymen are following," he replied, "and in comparison with the area and resources of their colonies and of the other great new countries upon which they draw for food and fertilizer, they are fairly comparable with the New England States in this country. Even the Empire of Germany is only four-fifths as large as Texas. The only country of Europe at all comparable with the United States is Russia, and in that great country the average yield of wheat for the last twenty years is eight and one-fourth bushels per acre, even though, as a general practice, the land is allowed to lie fallow every third year. The average yield for the five famine years that have occurred during the twenty-year period was six and one-quarter bushels of wheat per acre."
"That is wretched," said Adelaide, "I know about the Russian famines for we have made contributions through our church for their relief, but that condition can surely never come to this great rich new country, can it?"