298 THE FARMER OF TO-MORROW 



own kind is mere speculation. In the case 

 of cow-peas the facts seem to warrant such an 

 assumption. 



This phase of the researches of the Ameri- 

 can scientists has met with even more skepti- 

 cism than that pertaining to the "immutable 

 assets." Yet the opponents come to the line 

 of battle singularly ignorant, because the 

 United States Bureau of Soils is many years 

 ahead of the others in research along these 

 lines. In fact, all of the original research that 

 has been conducted to this day has been on the 

 part of the Americans, working in their Wash- 

 ington laboratories. 



The position of the opponents is that of ag- 

 nostics. They do not know. Therefore, they 

 do not believe. Scientists of Rothamsted are 

 inclined to dismiss the postulates without ar- 

 gument. So far as their personal knowledge 

 extends, there are but two classes of soil 

 soils that are sour and soils that are sweet 

 in other words, soils containing a sufficiency 

 of calcium carbonate and soils deficient in this 

 element. 



They are inclined to believe that many of 

 the phenomena listed by the Americans as due 

 to organic toxins in soils are due merely to a 



