XII NOTES BY THE EDITOR. 



with which nature abounds, into comely clothing, than by the 

 present infinitesimal spinning and weaving of thousands of yards 

 of yarn to form a single yard of cloth ? That we may yet navi- 

 gate the air is hardly less likely now than was the navigation of 

 the sea by steam seventy years ago. 



" Future invention must give us cheaper food, cheaper clothing, 

 and cheaper lodging. Past invention has not sufficiently secured 

 these, and the condition of trade and of society is now such that a 

 majority of the population, even when working almost continu- 

 ously, can gain but a decent subsistence, without any practical 

 advance upon their daily necessities. 



" Among the great inventions of the future, we believe we may 

 look for a highly scientific and artificial agriculture, which shall 

 more than double the active productive power of the soil. We 

 shall learn how to restore to the soil a great deal of the vitality 

 of which we now rob it and turn to waste ; we shall learn how to 

 secure increased action of the sun and atmosphere, and even of 

 stimulating gases within its substance ; and we shall thus place it 

 in a measure beyond the caprices of climate. The force of steam, 

 and many artificial agencies, including artificial moisture, will be 

 turned to account, and the production of food will become a great 

 and elaborated manufacture, to be carried on with an amount of 

 talent and cultivated skill corresponding to that now engaged upon 

 railways or in the great textile and metal manufactures of the 

 country." 



We present the readers of the ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DIS- 

 COVERY for 1868, a fine Portrait of PROF. WILLIAM B. ROGERS, 

 LL. D., the eminent Geologist and Physicist,and the President of 

 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, etc. 



