THE NEW EARTH 



applying to their lands are utterly valueless, 

 or else that the amount of fertility they add 

 is in no way commensurate with their cost. 

 Indeed, the station may show the farmer how 

 he can make at home, at slight expense, per- 

 haps not a twentieth of the cost he has pre- 

 viously incurred, a fertilizer which will do far 

 better service. Very much knowledge has also 

 been spread among the farmers as to food 

 values, showing them by practical demonstra- 

 tion how great has been the w r aste of former 

 years and how to check it. There is probably 

 not a station among the whole threescore 

 which has not proven in some particular line 

 of investigation as great an aid negatively as 

 positively. 



One is confronted with a formidable obstacle 

 in attempting, in any such compass as this, to 

 show the direct and indirect value of the sta- 

 tions in a positive sense, an obstacle too large 

 indeed thus to be overcome. One station does 

 work in the reclamation of soils, like Cali- 

 fornia, for example, which transforms whole 

 regions of desert lands into rich orchards, 

 simply by showing how these lands may be 

 restored to fertility by methods devised by 



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