68 VERTICAL FARMING 



doubling the water supply, by cultivating the ground to double 

 and treble the former depths. " Vertical Farming," to coin a 

 name, is the keynote of a new agriculture that has come to stay, 

 for inexpensive explosives enable the farmer to farm deeper, to 

 go down to increase his acreage, and to secure larger crops. 

 Instead of spreading out over more land he concentrates on less 

 land and becomes an intensive rather than an extensive agri- 

 culturist, and soon learns that it is more profitable to double the 

 depth of his fertile land than to double the area of his holdings, 

 and he learns that his best aid and servant in this work is a good 

 explosive. Peace congresses demand that swords be turned into 

 pruning hooks. The farmer is busy turning explosives from 

 war to agriculture, from death dealing to life giving work. 



There is a demand to-day for farmers who think, and who 

 think long and closely as well as observe; for men who reject 

 nothing because it is an innovation, because it is new. Men 

 are wanted everywhere who have thought for themselves how 

 soil first came into being and what its form and character are 

 and what they mean ; men who are not satisfied until they know 

 how plants feed, where they feed, and the nature of their food ; 

 men who look below the surface of the ground and realize that 

 as much of their future crop is there as will be above the sur- 

 face, that plant roots must have air and water at the right 

 times and in the right abundance as much as the animals in their 

 barns. 



This kind of men have been and are using explosives freely 

 as the best and simplest means of securing success and accom- 

 plishing their object. Their success may be duplicated by all 

 who care to do so. The use of explosives for deep cultivating 

 and other farm purposes has come to stay. 



Vertical farming with explosives is another step forward 

 as truly as irrigation and dry farming, and is greater, for unlike 

 them it is not limited to any area or region but may be practised 

 everywhere and anywhere. It has the world for its field. 



