22 CAMPBELL'S SOIL CULTURE MANUAL 



and that the physical condition of the soil has little or 

 nothing to do with the crops, there would be a better 

 feeling as to the safeness and sureness of agriculture. Then 

 the farmer should try to comprehend how God has pro- 

 vided the necessary elements for the germination of the 

 seed and growth of the plant; but it has been left to man 

 to discover what is necessary under all conditions to de- 

 velop the magnificent crop of cereals or to cause the gar- 

 dens to glow with the beauty of finest flowers. Man 

 must prepare the way. He must combine the different 

 elements and give direction to the forces of nature. It 

 is a study worthy of the greatest minds of the world. It 

 is a science which the ideal farmer must know. 



There has been a good deal of tendency in recent 

 years to follow the cry of back to the farms; but if the na- 

 ture of the science were better understood and men were 

 more familiar with what has been accomplished and what 

 lies just ahead, I feel sure that public sentiment would 

 change radically and that rural life would be far more 

 popular than it is now. 



Scientific methods under the guiding hands of the 

 ideal farmers are rapidly eliminating the drudgery of 

 farm life. Our teachers in schools and in literature are 

 not so much teaching a way to avoid work as they are 

 showing how more can be accomplished with a given 

 amount of work. It is being shown how larger crops and 

 surer crops are to be garnered. The men and women of 

 the farm are being awakened to the fact that they are not 

 mere toilers, but important factors in the affairs of the 

 world. It is open to them to make real progress, for if 

 they do all that they should they will discover methods 

 of improvement, and by their investigations show the way 

 to better methods for the production of crops. 



