CHLOROPHYLL AND ENERGY 223 



will easily cause rain. Without vegetation, the air is very dry 

 and the whole climate tends towards the creation of a desert. 



Much more even than these considerations of energy and 

 climate, arguments of a biological, economic or human kind 

 are strongly in favour of irrigation — a soil under cultivation 

 instead of becoming rapidly denuded, a prosperous and 

 inhabited countryside instead of the mass departure of peasants 

 discouraged by their meagre crops in a country daily 

 becoming more impoverished. 



Turbines, which are so important for the development and 

 enrichment of a country, may become a source of ruin if they 

 monopolize water which could otherwise be used for irrigation. 



Towards a Better Yield 



In the world of the future, the products obtained through 

 chlorophyll will be reserved for uses worthy of them, and 

 other sources of energy will be able to replace them when- 

 ever possible — atomic energy may eventually supply these 

 subordinate needs. 



The substances produced through chlorophyll are not all 

 of equal benefit to man and most of them gain by being trans- 

 formed or improved. Progress will undoubtedly be made in 

 this direction, but certain natural processes will probably 

 never be surpassed; there is unlikely to be any better means 

 than bees for making honey, than pigs for producing fat or 

 than cows for giving milk. 



The task of the stock-rearer will be to find a breed of pigs 

 to produce 2 lb. of fat from 7 or 8 lb. of meal or breeds of 

 cows which will produce more butter or milk from the same 

 quantity of grass — a task that will become more and more 

 essential, for these "synthetic factories" are unrivalled. 



The most important work devolves upon the agriculturists 

 and the botanists; they must ensure that the surface of the 

 ground is always used to the best advantage by chlorophyll 

 and must find the best crops to cultivate in a given environ- 

 ment and climate — those that will store the most solar energy 

 in the most useful form. 



