SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— FART VII 415 



face of sandpaper, and everj^ seed gets its nose bruised on that sand- 

 paper. It is broken just enough so tliat when it gets into the ground 

 the water will be able to find its way through the shell to the gerni. 

 and it is unnecpssary to use po miu h of it to the acre, and it is money 

 saved. 



A big niauufacturing conceru that I know of sets aside in its annual 

 budget every year the sum of iJ-lO.OOO for investigation. They have 

 problems coming up constantly that need attention and investigation, 

 and they maintain a large staff of experts for the purpose of studying 

 upon those problems. The General Electric Company, of Schenectady, 

 has a large force of investigators. I believe their head man receives 

 a salary of something like $15,000 or $20,000. Such concerns are con- 

 stantly confronted by new questions. 



Let me ask if there is any industry anywhere that is bigger than 

 farming, with a capital invested in this state of $4,000,000,000; and is 

 there any industry which has problems coming up faster than in agri- 

 culture? No. The farmers of this country, and the great work they 

 are doing, are constantly and unavoidably throwing nature ou,t of 

 balance. Did you ever think of it that way? Take a country without 

 people, the great forests growing, the natural herbage, the streams, 

 and everything just as nature would leave it, and then let man come 

 in and replace large areas of forest with cultivated crops — he has 

 thrown it out of balance, and that means that some insects that were 

 before properly controlled by other insects will now be free to go out 

 with their depredations on a larger scale than before. Down in Aus- 

 tralia some years ago, they found they could not grow clover any more, 

 according to the report. They formerly had grown large quantities 

 of it, and it was a very important crop. The reason was that things 

 had been thrown out of balance by man. Let me tell you how. The 

 subject was carefully investigated. It was found that they were not 

 growing clover as they had formerly grown it, because they were 

 not as many bumble-bees as there formerly were; and bumble-bees 

 are necessary to fertilize the clover blossoms. And why were there 

 fewer bumble-bees? That was investigated. It was found that there 

 were fewer bumble-bees because there were more field mice, and the 

 field mice robbed the bumble-bees' nests, and got the honey and the 

 young. And why were there more field mice? Because there were fewer 

 owls to catch the mice. And why were there fewer owls? Because there 

 were more men with guns. That is the way men throw things cut of 

 balance, and that is the way that, constantly following our progress, there 

 come up problems which we have to solve; and I suppose that is the 

 reason why the Lord put some gray-matter up in the tops of our heads, 

 so that we would be able to use it to work out these problems which our 

 very succeis and our development are forcing upon us. 



Now, no farmer can afford to maintain an experiment station with 

 a $40,000 annual budget, because the farmers' business is not capitalized, 

 as is the large corporation, in the interest of all farmers, and our state 



