260 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



food and drugs intended for human consump- 

 tion. 



There is, therefore, no reason for wonder 

 that the average farmer interprets the use of 

 chemicals only in the light of so much plant 

 food added to his soil, and calculates their 

 value accordingly. That is exactly what the 

 state experiment station experts have been 

 trained to do, and, with the weight of the 

 dominant theory impressing them at all times, 

 it is small wonder that they have come, in 

 time, to measure values only through the 

 plant-food factor. Jeremiah, the farmer in 

 the field, reads that the use of $1,000 worth 

 of potash salts, applied to a given field, in- 

 creased the yield by $10,000 in value. He 

 is not apt to go beyond the implied conclusion 

 that the field must have been lacking in avail- 

 able potash to attain such striking results. He 

 does not inquire into the peculiar climatic con- 

 ditions affecting the particular crop, the na- 

 ture of the soil as to its physical characteristics 

 and organic content, or the methods of cultiva- 

 tion or the quality of seed used. 



Nevertheless, there is a growing army of 

 experts who are beginning to question more 

 and more the value of the volume of data 



