CHAPTER I 



SEA FARMING 



F one were to construct a classification of the 

 units of society, he could perhaps most con- 

 veniently group them as pessimists and opti- 

 mists. It is difficult to determine which is 

 the larger group. One is apt to say in his haste that all 

 men are pessimists. Whether this really is true or not, 

 chronic fault-finders certainly are not rare, and all know 

 where to look for the glowing face of the optimist. 

 Every one knows the cheerful friend who, while urging 

 one to go fishing with him, would turn his back on the 

 black cloud rising in the southwest and call attention to 

 the little patch of blue remaining in the east to prove the 

 impossibility of rain. On large matters of national 

 interest, as well as in small affairs, the American public 

 has had a long training in optimism. Popular writers, 

 and orators on platform and stump, have always taught 

 us that ours is the greatest of nations in achievement, and 

 that our natural resources are limitless and inexhaustible. 

 It may be that general intelligence is sufficiently ad- 

 vanced to warrant the introduction of a third group into 

 this classification. Whatever name may be given to the 

 group, it includes those who, instead of constructing argu- 

 ments to substantiate opinions, are interested only in what 

 is true. They employ the simple and common sense 

 method of modern science, stripping themselves of 



