DESTRUCTIVENESS OF MAN. 35 



The earth was not, in its natural condition, completely adapted 

 to the use of man, but only to the sustenance of wild animals and 

 wild vegetation. These Hve, multiply their kind in just propor- 

 tion, and attain their perfect measure of strength and beauty, 



lime, in Iowa and other Western States. Corn at from fifteen to eighteen 

 cents per bushel is found cheaper than wood at from five to seven dollars per 

 cord, or coal at six or seven dollars per ton. — Rep. Agric. Dept., Nov. and 

 Dec, 1872, p. 487. 



One of the greatest benefits to be expected from the improvements of civil- ' 

 ization is, that increased facilities of communication will render it possible to| 

 transport to places of consumption much valuable material that is now wasted 

 because the price at the nearest market will not pay freight. The cattle'' 

 slaughtered in South America for their hides would feed millions of the starv- 

 ing population of the Old World, if their flesh could be economically preserved 

 and transported across the ocean. This indeed is already done, but on a 

 scale which, though absolutely considerable, is relatively insignificant. South 

 America sends to Europe a certain quantity of nutriment in the fonn of meat 

 extracts, Liebig's and others ; and preserved flesh from Australia is begin- 

 ning to figure in the English market. 



[Since the above paragraph was written the transportation of fresh meat 

 from distant countries to England has been attended with remarkable success. 

 A single ship is said on good authority to have brought from New Zealand to 

 England, in the spring of 1882, the flesh of 5,000 sheep in perfectly good con- 

 dition. The course of this vessel necessarily lay across the tropics, and her 

 delicate freight sustained no injury whatever from the great heat to which she 

 was exposed. By means of a refrigerating apparatus the meat was kept at a 

 temperature near or at the freezing point.] 



A very important recent economy is the utilization of those portions of cer- 

 tain agricultural products that were formerly treated as mere refuse. The cot- 

 ton-growing States in America produce annually about three million tons of 

 cotton seed. This until very recently has been thrown away as a useless in- 

 cumbrance, but it is now valued at from ten to twelve dollars per ton for the 

 cotton fibre which adheres to it, for the oil extracted from it, and for the feed 

 which it afterwards furnishes to cattle. The oil — which may be described as 

 neutral — is used very largely for mixing with other oils, many of which bear 

 a large proportion of it without injury to their special properties. The sansa, 

 or pulp of the olive remaining after the oil has been expressed, until very re- 

 cently considered worthless except as manure, is now found to be capable of 

 yielding, by a different treatment, a considerable quantity of oil and some 

 other valuable products. Even the waste from silk manufactories, and the 

 shreds and fragments from the shops of modistes, formerly thrown away as 

 useless, are now carefully saved. A long series of costly experiments has led 

 to the invention of processes for reducing all this material to a fibrous condi- 

 tion, and for re-spinning and weaving it into every possible tissue. The opera- 

 tion is carried on in England on a scale of really great industrial importance. 



The substitution of expensive machinery for manual labor, even in agricul- 



