ABSTRACT
It used to be said that the greatest public benefactor was the man who could make two blades of grass grow where one grew before. Not so to-day, when the nations are considering agreements to restrict output and even destroying the products of the soil. The man of science must take up an apologetic attitude at the present time with regard to agriculture. For two generations he has been entreated to make the land more productive and to reduce costs; but as an American professor of agriculture writes to me: “Ten million acres of cotton and some thousands of tobacco have been ploughed under. The latest move is the killing of some 5 million pigs weighing under 100 lb. and the slaughter of some 200,000 prospective mother sows. If this will bring national prosperity I have wasted my life.” The man of science may be forgiven if he concludes that he is no longer wanted and may retire to his ivory tower, but whatever food for irony the world spectacle presents he will not be allowed to enjoy it in detachment, for if the deluge comes he will be swept down with the rest.
