Fortunes in Agriculture 211 



soil. They also protect the land from wind erosion. 



Government officials assure us that the all-out effort to raise 

 "Food for Freedom" is not going to cause them to forget soil- 

 conservation programs. 



"We had a good food administration in World War I, but 

 we didn't have an agriculture program at all," they explain. 

 "That was why the range of the great Western plains was 

 ploughed up and planted to wheat and finally turned to 

 dust. We have a program now and it will not include any dust 

 bowls caused by wind erosion on unprotected land. There is 

 a surplus of wheat, and that land which has been restored by 

 tree planting and the return of Buffalo grass will remain a 

 range just as it was cut out to be." 



Soil-less Agriculture 



In areas where the soil cannot be saved, or where there isn't 

 enough soil to start with, the new soil-less agriculture can take 

 over successfully. More than a dozen years of experiments in 

 the cultivation of vegetable crops through water feeding, or 

 hydroponics, rather than through soil feeding, has proved the 

 value of soil-less agriculture. The pioneer in hydroponics is 

 Professor W. F. Gericke of the University of California. He 

 grew vegetables in shallow tanks of water to which the chemi- 

 cal fertilizers had been added. The seeds were sown in a layer 

 of sawdust or moss on wire netting just above the water into 

 which the roots grew. 



In a letter to Lancelot Hogben, Professor Gericke gave 

 details of the yields obtained by tank culture. Four basins, 

 each providing 25 sq. ft. of water surface, yielded 1,224 

 Ib. of ripe tomatoes. The 28 Ib. of chemicals required for this 

 crop cost less than three cents a pound. A basin providing 

 one-hundredth of an acre of water surface yielded 24.65 

 bushels of potatoes. These were grown in the open and re- 



