If the 5,000,000 acres that have been thrown out of cultivation in England in the last fifty years were now settled with 5,000,000 Homecroft Reservists, under the plan proposed for adoption in the United States, those Homecrofters could pay off the national debt of Great Britain in just two years and live comfortably the meanwhile. A total net annual production of only $500 an acre, multiplied by the labor of 5,000,000 men for one year, would amount to $2,500,000,000. That would be enough to pay off the national debt of France in less than three years, and of Russia in less than two years. It would pay off the entire war debt of the world in twenty years. That gives some idea of the economic strength of a Homecroft nation, such as we must create in the United States of America. The possibilities of acreage production are steadily increasing as our scientific knowledge of the mysteries of plant growth and methods of fertilization advances. The United States is now at the forks of the road. Certain destruction is our fate if we continue the drift away from the land into the congested cities. If, instead of that, we become a nation of Homecrofters, no dream can picture the future strength of this country or the human advancement that its people will accomplish, to say nothing of the production of national wealth so great as to be practically inconceivable. In the future the power of the nations of the world will be in proportion to the wise use they make of their productive resources, and the extent to which they provide opportunities for _acreculture_ and create Homecroft Rural Settlements instead of crowding humanity into congested cities where they become consumers and cease to be producers of food. If the present war has proved anything it has proved that the one thing above all others which insures the national defense is trained and seasoned men,--and enough of them to overwhelm any invading enemy by the sheer force and weight of innumerable battalions. In all the future years the fundamental military strength of every nation is going to be measured by the number of such men that she has immediately available for instant service, with adequate arms and equipment. The establishment of a Homecroft Reserve by the United States of America will make of this nation a living demonstration of the truth of those immortal words of Henry W. Grady: "_The citizen standing in the doorway of his home--contented on his threshold--his family gathered about his hearthstone--while the evening of a well spent day closes in scenes and sounds that are dearest--he shall save the republic when the drum tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted._" THE SECRET OF NIPPON'S POWER THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HOMECROFTERS CONTAINS