"It will come just as certainly as we allow our soil fertility to decrease and our population to increase. As a nation we have scarcely lifted a hand yet to stop the waste of fertility or to restore exhausted lands; practically every effort put forth by the Federal government along agricultural lines having been directed toward better seeds, control of injurious insects and fungous diseases, exploitation of new lands by drainage and irrigation, popularly called 'reclamation,' although applied only to rich virgin soils which can certainly be brought under cultivation at any future time either by the Government or by private enterprise. But why should not the Federal government make all necessary provisions to furnish ground limestone and phosphate rock at the actual cost of quarrying, grinding, and transporting, in order that farmers on these old depleted soils may be encouraged to adopt systems of soil improvement; or even compelled to adopt such systems, just as they are compelled to build school houses, bridges, and battleships?" "Perhaps the Government would do this," said Adelaide, "if the Secretary of Agriculture would recommend it." "I have heard of the '_big if,'" _Percy replied slowly, "but I am afraid this _if _will beat the record for bigness. His soil theorists continue to assure him that soils do not wear out, no matter how heavily cropped, if they are only rotated and cultivated; and to support their theories they have forsaken the data from the most carefully conducted and long continued scientific investigations, and indulged in a game of guessing that the increasing productiveness of a few small countries of Europe is not due to any necessary addition of plant food. "But here is the depot, and I have taken almost an hour to drive three miles. If I had hurried, you might have been back home by this time. I am afraid I have been selfish in allowing the team to walk nearly all of the way, but they will at least be fresh for the home trip which you promised to make in less than twenty minutes, I remember. Now if you will hold the lines, I will run into the store to get the thread. I remember the kind; I often do such errands for mother." "I will wait while you get your ticket and find out if the train is on time," said Adelaide, as Percy returned with the thread. "At least fifty minutes late," he reported, "and the agent said he was glad of it for he would need about that time to make out such a long-jointed ticket as I want. I am rather glad too, for I can watch you to the turn in the road on the hill, which must be a mile or more, and I will time you. You can have six minutes to make that corner." "You mean I can have six minutes to get out of sight," she suggested. "I think you are out of sight," he ventured. Adelaide reddened. "I shall have to tell mother what slang you use," she said.