THE NEW INSPIRATION. 363 



It is this element which must be most largely supplied to the 

 soil ; it is this which has been most costly to supply. The un- 

 limited quantities of atmospheric nitrogen, the earth being 

 constantly bathed by the oceans of it, were unavailable as a 

 fertilizing material until the chemists, the microscopists and 

 the biologists found that certain minute organisms could be 

 bred by the billion and that these had the power of extracting 

 the nitrogen from the air and supplying it to the roots of the 

 plants in the soil. The discoveries of the chemists mean an 

 inexhaustible soil fertility. 



WHAT BOTANISTS ARE DOING FOR FARMERS. 



There are millions of acres of land in the western portions 

 of the country upon which a hopeful people settled as far- 

 mers at the time when the phenomenal western movement was 

 at its height. On account of the scanty rainfall in the region 

 to which we refer, the staple crops as corn and wheat were 

 usually a failure. Irrigation is now doing wonders for por- 

 tions of this area, but vast tracts are not readily irrigable 

 perhaps are not irrigable at all. It seems inevitable that this 

 entire region would have gone back into its original uncul- 

 tivated state but for the botanists. They sought plants which 

 were adapted to the conditions. They suggested Kafir or Jeru- 

 salem corn. They went out there and planted patches of it 

 to demonstrate its adaptability to the region. They showed 

 the discouraged farmers there that it would yield 30 bushels 

 to the acre though not a drop of water fell upon the soil from 

 the day of the planting to the time of harvesting. Now they 

 are introducing the Durham wheats to the same region and 

 the wonders which the eye beholds in western Kansas and 



