ECONOMY OF MTROGEX. 



181 



and as we have still, in another point, deviated 

 from Nature's plan by not restoring to the soil 

 what we take from it, we meet the universally 

 admitted fact that, without a supply of nitrogen- 

 ous manures, the fertility of our fields declines. 

 What proof, other than this one fact, is required 

 to show that there is in the economy of the world 

 no recuperative power equal to our present power 

 of waste, and that we are thus rendering nitrogen 

 unavailable more rapidly than it is being com- 

 bined or made available ? Our stock of solidified 

 nitrogen, like our supply of solidified carbon, is 

 decreasing, and must ultimately come to an end. 

 The case of nitrogen is, of the two, by far the 

 worse, because Nature is manufacturing fuel for 

 us far more rapidly than she is producing albu- 

 minoids. 



What, then, remains ? The world may not, 

 perhaps, be upon the whole more populous than 

 it has ever been before ; but, thanks to some of 

 the inventions upon which we so much pride our- 

 selves, thanks to the industrial development which 

 has characterized the last three centuries, and to 

 which history records nothing similar, waste — de- 

 struction of the matter most essential to life — has 

 reached a height truly ominous and alarming to 

 contemplate. It is sad to think that our civiliza- 

 tion, with all its glories, may be most aptly de- 

 scribed in those lines from "The Devil's Walk 

 on Earth : " 



" The pig swam well, but every stroke 

 Was cutting his own throat." 



We know now — approximately, at least — the 

 extent of the earth's resources. We have no 

 more vast and scarcely-trodden continents for us 

 to discover. We can no longer calculate on find- 

 ing coal, or phosphates, or other useful products, 

 at any point where we may choose to dig. No 

 more can we comfort ourselves with vague hopes 

 that emptied mines and exhausted soils will spon- 

 taneously grow rich again, or that plants can cre- 

 ate their own nourishment. Nor can we lay the 

 flattering unction to our souls that for every 

 utility no longer procurable a substitute will be 

 found. The dreams indulged in by enthusiasts 

 in the earlier portion of the present century — of 

 a future measured perhaps by millions of years, 

 in which mankind will be constantly improving 

 in power, in knowledge, and in happiness — are 

 being somewhat rudely broken. Science tells us, 

 in unmistakable tones, that this earth cannot for- 

 ever afford a home to a race like ours. What, 

 for instance, would be the condition of mankind 

 were all the habitable parts of the globe as popu- 

 lous, as industrial, and as luxurious, as are West- 



ern and Central Europe and the eastern part of 

 North America ? Whence would they all be able 

 to import their needed supplies of food, of ma- 

 nures, and of raw materials for manufacturing 

 purposes '? Time was when England produced a 

 sufficiency of food for her own inhabitants. Then 

 came a time when she began to import, and that 

 in ever-increasing proportions, both food and 

 manures. Next we mark that the countries 

 which formerly exported food and manurial mat- 

 ters — i. e., ground bones, etc. — ceased to do so, 

 became importers instead of exporters of both, 

 and competed with us in the market. The At- 

 lantic States of the American Union import ma- 

 nures, and can scarcely supply food for their home 

 population. By-and-by must come a time when 

 Chili, California, South Russia, Hungary, will re- 

 quire all the wheat they can produce for their 

 own consumption. The eyes of our political 

 economists will perforce be opened to the truth 

 that every country unable to feed its own popula- 

 tion is in a dangerous predicament. The civilized 

 world is now in the position of a spendthrift who 

 is gradually awaking to a faint consciousness 

 that his resources are limited, and that "some- 

 thing must be done." Before us — and by " us'' 

 we mean not merely the British nation, but the 

 entire civilized world — there lie open two courses. 

 We may go on as we are now doing, increasing 

 in wastefulness even more rapidly than in num- 

 bers, and presenting our drafts upon Nature till 

 the reply at last comes, " No effects." Or we 

 may take the advice which Science has given us 

 by the mouth of Liebig, and amend our ways. 

 Pending the great discovery of the industrial 

 utilization of atmospheric nitrogen, we must look 

 with a jealous eye upon every application of ni- 

 trogen, and also of phosphorus and of potash, 

 other than for food or medicine. We must pro- 

 scribe the use of nitrogenous bodies for all pur- 

 poses to which such nitrogen is not essential. 

 We must restore to the land all that we take from 

 the land in forms capable of assimilation. We 

 must either seek to restrict the use of explosives, 

 or we must find bodies of this class whose manu- 

 facture shall not rob our fields and gardens. We 

 must obtain our sizings, our thickeners, our mor- 

 dants, our vinegar, our alcohol, from bodies free 

 from or at least poor in nitrogen. How much of 

 the programme may lie within the bounds of pos- 

 sibility the future only can show. Shall we ever 

 succeed in obtaining food direct from its inor- 

 ganic elements without the tedious and circuitous 

 interposition of plants and animals ? If so, the 

 future of the human race may be both longer 



