Science in Public Affairs 



and care of organisms defies mechanics, in the 

 other, geological anomalies cannot be ignored with- 

 out too great waste in production. But, though 

 complete mechanisation is here impossible, some 

 of the greatest economies of modern science are 

 devoted to these industries. In mining, mechanics 

 and chemistry have reduced to a minimum of 

 human labour the carrying and even the hewing 

 processes, though the best mechanical methods 

 are only economically feasible where cheap human 

 labour cannot be procured. 



In agriculture the organic sciences of chemistry, 

 botany, and biology in co-operation bid fair to 

 produce economies even more important than the 

 growing contribution of agricultural machinery. 

 If the new biological sciences can get a firmer 

 grip upon the education of the consumer, so that 

 a new economy in the consumption of foods and 

 other raw materials can co-operate with modern 

 reforms in agriculture, the greatest of all industrial 

 triumphs will be scored by science in the virtual 

 abolition of the reign of the dismal law of diminish- 

 ing returns. For there is now reason to believe 

 that modern agriculture, stock-breeding, and pisci- 

 culture can so turn to human account the natural 

 law, according to which lower species multiply 

 faster than higher species, as to provide from 

 land and water a continually increasing quantity 

 of food for man at a diminishing cost of human 

 labour. 



But science not only rules large sections of 

 those productive processes commonly classed as 



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