Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1915-09-17
EAT AIR AND RAIN
Interesting Statement Made by
a Prominent Scientist.
Three-Fourths Of All Food We Eat ls
Derived Originally From Rain; 80
Per Cent of Remainder
Comes From Air.

Three-fourths of all the food we eat
is derived originally from rain. OF the
remainder. 80 per cent comes from the
air, the balance-one-twenti part Of
the whole-is obtained from the soil
| This interesting statement is made
| by DR.. A. T. Stuart of the Canadian
| department of agriculture, who de-
scribes the farmer as the great man.
ufacturer. He makes the things
which other people merely put to-
| gether in different ways.
| The farmer takes 70 pounds of wa
ter. 20 pounds Of air and pounds of
| soil. These are his raw materials,
and from them. in the quantities and
proportions above mentioned, he
turns out 100 pounds of products.
The mixture of gases which we call
air is fluid by no means so thin and
| imponderable as we are accustomed
to imagine. An ordinary packing box
three feet cube will contain about two
and one-half pounds of it. The twenty
| pounds of air that contribute so i'm
portant a percentage of our food sup
ply would occupy, at normal sea-level
pressure. a cubical space 10 feet on an
edge.
The rs pounds of water would make
about nine and one-half gallons. Five
pounds of soil will represent the con-
tents Of a clay flower pot of moderate
| size; and thus one forms an idea cas-
lily grasped Of the quantities of the
three original raw materials required
by the farmer for the manufacture of
| 100 pounds of products.
These products are food and cloth
ing. OF all the clothes people wear,
per cent is made of animal or vege-
| table materials that are the yield of
! agriculture. Even the leather of which
| our shoes are made is, of course, a
| farm product. Silk is spun by caterpil-
lars, but in reality is is nothing but
mulberry leaves, converted by their
agency into a fiber that can be woven.
We know what air is, and water is
| familiar enough. That soil is merely
powdered rock, containing small
percentage of decayed vegetable mat
ter, has long been understood. But
many facts in regard to this last in
| dispensable raw material of the farmer
have only recently been learned.
Consider. for one thing, the size of
the rock PARTICLES. In some soils they
are so tiny, according to Doctor Stuart,
that one hundred millions of millions
of them may be held on the point of a
| penknife.
That seems remarkable, does 1t not?
But take single pound of this kind
Of soil. and measure the total surface
area represented by it's component
PARTICLES. 1t is a not very difficult
problem in mathematics. The total
surface area of the particles that go
to make up one pound is about three
acres.
This Is In itself a matter Of much
| Importance, from the viewpoint Of the
farmer-manufacture for each particle
of soil is enveloped by thin filp of
water. And 1t Is from this water that
the plants he grows derive their sus-
| tenance.
The fluid in question, however, is
not merely water. 1t is kind of
soup, in which plant food. both or
ganic-from the decayed vegetable
matter-and mineral. is dissolved.
What we call the fruitful land" is
merely bed for the plants to stand
up In while they feed upon this soup.
Under the microscope all plants are
found to be made up of little cells or
pouches ~filledl with fluid. In an
orange or lemon they are so big as to
be easily seen when the fruit is cut
Each of these cells-which multiply
at wonderful rate to make what we
call growth-is little chemical fac.
tory, and it is they which, under the
general management of the manufac.
turing farmer, produce protein" fat
starch, sugar. fiber, ETC., with inciden
tai colors and fiavors, to supply in a
multitude of forms the demands OF
the market.