68 



SUB SOIL CROPS AND THE FOOD SUPPLY FOR 

 TOMORROW'S NATIONS 



Bji Dr. Robert T. Mori-is, New York 



Today one hears .a good deal of expression of fear that a populous 

 world may some day run short of its foodi supply. The idea reminds 

 me of an occasion when two young school friends of mine tramped 

 three miles through the woods to spend a precious Saturday on a bass 

 lake. They forgot to take along their fish hooks but found one old 

 hook and sinker stuck in the side of the fishing basket. The boys 

 pushed off the boat and tossed up a nickel to see who would have the 

 first turn with the liook. Luck fell to George. He baited up with 

 big green grasshoppers and shortly felt a ferocious yank on the hook. 

 It was such a powerl'ul tug that it pulled the end of his rod right 

 under water and broke the line. To add to the aggravation a three- 

 pound -bass then came splashing up into the air, open mouthed, shak- 

 ing the hook in their faces. The day was a failure. Nothing to be 

 done now but sadly walk three miles back home again. The bass 

 jumped once more, this time so near that it hit an oar and bounced 

 over into the boat. When the boys opened its mouth to take out the 

 hook, they found there another hook lost by some previous fisherman. 

 Having two hooks they fished all day and cauglit a heavy mess to 

 lug home. 



That sort of thing is going to happen to our food supply in general, 

 not only for nations now on earth but for other peoples, white, yellow 

 or brown as the case may be, that will naturally follow our present- 

 day civilization tomorrow. 



We are prone to think that the present day represents about the 

 last word in everything. A sort of static brainease we may call it. 

 That was the way people felt when the flintlock gun was invented. 



Napoleon's surgeon. Baron Larrey, at the height of the second or 

 anatomic era in surgery said that surgery had reached its limitations. 



