90 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



with the useful ones. It is as sure as any thing that has been 

 done by man ; and this part of the cultivation of the corn- 

 plant, in my opinion, is of greater importance than even the 

 feeding. First comes the breeding, and then the feeding, 

 ever and always, in plants as in animals. For what possi- 

 bilities present themselves with this most magnificent plant, 

 — one that can reproduce its seed one thousand times even 

 now ! If we can fix upon it this habit of multiple earing, and 

 can feed it with rich, abundant, and acceptable food in pro- 

 portion to its greedful capacity, why should we stop short of 

 two hundred bushels per acre, now that we have easily reached 

 one hundred bushels, and have doubled the yield of a good 

 crop in the past ten years ? Perhaps you say, for what pur- 

 pose? What can be done with so much com? I reply, 

 there never yet was a useful thing produced that did not find 

 its use. Did the inventor of the telephone stop to inquire 

 if he could dispose of his instruments when he had made 

 them ? Did the glucose-maker ask, what shall I do with my 

 sirup when I have poured it out like water, and I see no use 

 for it now? Did the oleomargarine dairyman hesitate to 

 throw out a hundred million pounds of his stuff in a year, 

 wondering where would be the purchasers ? And shall the 

 grower of this noble grain, of which we make beef, pork, 

 mutton, wool, eggs, poultry, starch, grape sugar and sirup, 

 beer, alcohol, horse-power unlimited in extent, and bread for 

 man, — can such a universal element of wealth go a-begging 

 for uses? Each ton of it, besides, will create demands for 

 labor. Railroads, ships, elevators, bags, books, clerks, gold, 

 silver, banks, and a thousand other needs will be created for 

 its handling ; and, if in the next five years the present product 

 should be doubled, every grain would find its profitable use. 

 The world grows, and it grows because of the facilities given 

 it to grow. Supply always creates demand. Abundance 

 of food increases population. These are axioms proved by 

 history. Often we reason backwards, and the man who fears 

 to double his crops lest he cannot dispose of them reasons in 

 this crawfish fashion. When railroads were first made, peo- 

 ple were dreadfully afraid that there would be no use for 

 horses ; and some farmers were ready to weep at the dire 

 prospect of the loss of this business of raising horses, and 

 growing oats and hay. But look at the streets of the cities, 



