LIFE AND WORK AT CORNELL UNIVERSITY 193 



stadium. It is expected that eventually a much 

 larger sum will be expended in putting up a gym- 

 nasium with its various appurtenances. I am won- 

 dering if all this will result in making two " Young 

 Blades " grow where it was so difficult for me to 

 make one blade of corn grow, thirty-five years ago. 

 As the farm was already committed to an all- 

 year-round dairy, I determined to raise mangel 

 wurtzels, a large kind of beet, for the dairy cattle. 

 Like other farmers at that time I planted them 

 after the corn was planted, it being a major crop 

 while the minor crop of roots could wait. While 

 watching the men at the hateful task of weeding 

 them, I endeavored to think of some plan by which 

 the labor of tillage and weeding could be lessened 

 and the cost of production as well. My first 

 thought was that a summer fallow the previous 

 year would reduce the weed growth; but that ran 

 counter to my accepted theory that as far as pos- 

 sible, the ground should be occupied by plants the 

 entire year, thus imitating Nature's modes of 

 action. Nature grows a plant on every inch of 

 arable land, thus furnishing food for millions of 

 animals, while at the same time the soil grows 

 more productive year by year. The three golden 

 links, I used to say, were : to raise a plant to feed 



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