WAGES 29 



labour renders the feasibility of amelioration greater ; 

 and labour can be cheapened by science through its 

 discoveries of new sources of natural energy, and 

 improvements in the instruments and machinery for 

 applying it. 



A deficiency of ingredients also can be remedied, 

 but the cost is frequently prohibitive. There is hardly 

 any land which will not yield to treatment by farm- 

 yard manure if only sufficient is used. Chemistry, 

 however, has the merit of having discovered how to 

 supply fertility at a cost that is not inordinate. The 

 interior of the Australian Continent was uncultivable 

 until the invention of the superphosphate fertilisers, 

 and the cheapness at which chemists were able to 

 manufacture them, caused the formerly useless land to 

 come into the range of fertility ; indeed, it is upon such 

 land that the recent prosperity of Australia has been 

 built up. 



The most striking instance of science rendering 

 useless land productive occurs where no change is 

 caused to the land, but a plant is obtained capable of 

 thriving upon it. A case of this sort was the intro- 

 duction of the clover into the United Kingdom which 

 results not only in the growth of fodder crops upon land 

 where before very little could be obtained, but also in 

 the enrichment of the soil for bearing corn crops. 



Again a plant can be bred for the purpose of being 

 able to penetrate to the ingredients present in the soil 

 but out of reach of existing growths. Alfalfa is a 

 product of this nature. By reason of its long roots it 

 is able to descend to a great depth and extract the 

 moisture out of reach of the fodder plants previously 

 known. Much supposedly arid land in Australia and 

 elsewhere has by this means been brought within the 

 range of cultivation. 



Plants also can be bred to do with less than the usual 



