Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1905-12-07

being turned to fat, large part of
which is wasted, and much of what is
eaten being worse than wasted since it
Injuries the health. This part of the
article is summed up in these words,
"A reform must come, but il will come
no faster than the farmers learn to
produce crops richer in nitrogen, and
to make more meat and leaner
meat from less vegetable material,
and consumers learn to buy and use
meats and other foods of the kinds
and in the proportions best suited to
their actual needs. The agricultural
reform will lead to the production of
more food from less land" Says the
writer, 1T is clear then that by
the present method of meal production
and use, very considerable amount
of grass and corn of our farms and
grazing regions is wasted and worse
than wasted" On this American con.
tinent, there are vast tracts of land
that is as good soil as can be found
anywhere, but is non-productive be-
cause of lack of moisture. But there
is possibility of irrigating this land
and when the population becomes
great enough to create demand for
the products, and To Justify the ex-
pense, then this land will be irrigated.
But what then? What after all this
has been done, if the population still
keeps on increasing? No need of
alarm. Then by improved tillageand
fertiliZing, land which now supports
twenty persons can be made To sup
port a hundred. Prof. Atwater quoted
Prince KropStikin In illustration of
this fact, IF we want To know what
agriculture can be, and what can be
grown on a given amount OF SOIL we
must apply for Information To the
market garden culture in the neighbor-
hood Of Paris, Ameins, and other
large cities. There we shall find that
each one hundred acres under cultiva-
tion yields food not for forty beings,
but for two hundred to three hundred
persons, not for GO mich cows (as in
the Isle of Jersey but for 200 cows and
more il necessary. The gardeners
there have created u totally new agri-
culture. They smile when we boast
about the rotation system having per-
mitted us TO take from the soil, new
crop every year because their ambition
| is to have six to nine crops from the
same plot of ground during the twelve
months. They do not understand our
talk about good and bad soils because
| they make the soils themselves. But
| it is not necessary for me to quote
authorities to convince you of the
great possibilities of the soil, the
great increase in production it is cap
able OF under improved methods OF
farming, for you are already convinc-
ed. But some one asks, Will not
such forcing of the soil soon exhaust
| it of its nutritive qualities? But
science has revealed the fact that man
can soon give it back those qualities
when it will pay him to go to the eX-
pense Of doing do. Prince Kropotkin
| says, SIN the hands of men, there
are no unfertile soils" The POSSIBLE
tiles that lie in this direction are il
Illustrated by the following fact:
"About the middle of the 18th century
a lighthouse known as the Dnustan
Pillar was built on Lincoln Heath in
Lincolnshire, England. II was erect
ed to guide travellers over trackless
barren waste, q very desert, almost
in the heart of England, and long 1t
served its useful purpose. The pillar
no longer lighthouse, now stands in
the midst of rich and fertile farming
region, where all the land is in high
| cultivation. For many years no bar
L rem Il6dLH HAS DtGIl Visible. EDuDGI@
| phosphate of lime applied to the land
has effected the change, enabling it to
raise turnips which support sheep and
with sheep the English farmer has
been able to get rich on the poorest OF
| lands So il seems that now when
| the time is drawing near when much
of the soil must be fed by man To en-
able 10 to continue its work, man is
| l;ao,N AZ hot a rot ha fnnn alaInQnta
of vegetable growth, where are their
sources and by what means they can
be made cheaply available TO the
farmer.
The greatness Of crop which a
given piece OF land can produce de-
ponds upon the amount of food you
give it to eat other things being equal
/ If such food can be obtained it matters
not what may be the quality of the
soil. Modern research in discover
ing the laws of nutrition and growth
of plants has shown that they can
flourish on the most barren soil or
even without any soil at all" Now
notice in illustration of our text, that
until man discovered the laws OF
nutrition and growth Of plants,
there was plenty of soil in the world
with sufficient nutrition to supply the
markets of the world, and mans
ignorance OF those laws made but
little difference. But as the time APP
proaches when this nutrition must be
artificially supplied, the discovery
has been made what to supply, and
how to supply it. But the question
here arises as to the source of supply
and the quantity OF what is neededp
The elements needed are phosphorus,
potassium, and nitrogen. Can these
be obtained? Yes! in such quantities
that we are constrained to exclaim
"How great is thy goodness o Lord
which thou hast laid up'' In the store
houses of nature to supply the de-
yeloping needs of the human race!
Remember that il is only within the
past few years that our scientists have
discovered the sources OF this study.
Twenty six years ago writer said In
substance In the Quarterly Journal oil
Science that to discover their source
OF supply was the most sacred task
which the chemist can take in hand.
''The reforms which may shield us
from occasional pestilence sink into
! insignificance compared with those
required to guard posterity, in not
. very remote future from scarcity, from
recurrent famine, and from woliish
struggle for food in which man must
relapse into q worse savagery than
that from which he has emerged.
, Thus was great need disclosed.
, Was there in nature supply ~
years ago science said IL did not know.
Today agricultural science eXclaims
emphatically, Yes, there is an ample
, supply and the Century writer, writ
ing not as theologian, not as q