CAMPBELL'S SOIL CULTURE MANUAL 279 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 



PROGRESS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE. 



A great deal is being written for the books, magazines 

 and newspapers about the wonderful things that are being 

 done in all industrial lines for the advancement of the hu- 

 man race. It is era of achievement. Men do things. And 

 as a result the sum total of human happiness is promoted 

 with much rapidity. 



We all feel that the natural trend of things in the open- 

 ing decade indicates that the Twentieth century is to mark 

 an advancement in all material things that go to give com- 

 fort to mankind far in advance of the splendid record of 

 the Nineteenth or any previous century. The passion is 

 for progress, for the new things, for the better things, for 

 the more perfect organization and accomplishment. 



Yet it is all too true that man is naturally conservative 

 and is prone to cling tenaciously to the good old things. 

 He changes only under stress of necessity. That which is 

 new must demonstrate its right to existence. It is ever- 

 lastingly true now as it has always been in the past that 

 conservatism stands in the way of progress. Inventors 

 and discoverers have had to meet and overcome conser- 

 vatism with its strong backing of prejudice. One such 

 was compelled to go to prison because he declared his be- 

 lief that the world was round. Another struggled for years 

 to get a hearing in his project of demonstrating that he 

 could cross the ocean and reach the Indies by apparently 

 going away from them, An inventor who devised a ma- 



