5 2 THE NEW AGRICULTURE. 



For the purpose of making possible such a soil, investigations, 

 studies, analyses, surveys, engineering works, and all the ramifi- 

 cations of such an undertaking, are being carried forward by 

 private enterprise, by corporate capital, by institutions of learn- 

 ing, by state governments and by the general Government, en- 

 riching old soils to a virgin state and adding millions of other 

 acres of the highest fertility to the cultivable domain of the 

 nation. Of equal interest is it that these researches and labors 

 are not only adding to the fertile lands which are yet to be 

 disposed of at Government prices, but the incalculably valuable 

 information gathered by this army of experts at so great an 

 expenditure of money, talent and time, all lies within the easy 

 reach of anyone who will put himself into communication with 

 the authorities who are leading the van of the enterprise. 



The relation of water to soils, while known superficially 

 for many centuries, is in this country only now in process of 

 scientific investigation and development. In the rnake-up of a 

 vegetable plant water is of very large proportionate impor- 

 tance. It is estimated that for every pound of dry matter 

 which the plant produces, from 250 to 500 pounds of water 

 are extracted from the soil ; and while we k'now that but a 

 small proportion of this fluid is retained in the vegetable tissue, 

 the most of it being passed through and expelled by the leaves, 

 we know also that the process is as necessary to the plant's 

 life as the process of blood circulation or of breathing is to the 

 life of an animal. Moreover, water is of the greatest impor- 

 tance as a solvent, preparing the food for assimilation and 

 conveying it to the roots and rootlets of the vegetable growth. 



Two decades have barely gone by since wise men were pre- 

 dicting the speedy coming of the day when all the available 

 farming lands of the country would be pre-empted and occu- 



