CHESTNUT POSSIBILITIES IN PENNSYLVANIA. 



In the year 1803 Maltlhus published a work which inculcated the 

 idea that it was necessary a considerable portion of mankind should 

 die prematurely in order to keep the human population within the 

 limits which the earth could sustain. It may be true that in the 

 distant future such a doleful condition will be regarded as the nat- 

 ural and necessary one, but it is in the very distant future. The fact 

 is, we are barely on the edge of our agricultural possibilities. By far 

 the largest yields of the earth in the way of food supply await in- 

 creasing knowledge and necessity. 



To illustrate it is fair to estimate that there are upon this globe 

 not far from one hundred and fifty thousand species of flowering 

 plants. Ou the one hand, the human family uses for food out of 

 this vast host not over four hundred kinds. On the other hand, we 

 know that but a small pro-portion of the remainder contains any poi- 

 sonous or noxious properties. 



It is fortunate that upon so important a question we are not left 

 to conjecture. There are positive facts we can draw upon to sup- 

 port the statement that we are only on the edge of our possible food 

 resources. For example, the island of Jamaica is probably no excep- 

 tion to the majority of tropical islands in its fertility. It would, if 

 reduced to a square, be only about seventy miles each way. Yet, 

 after feeding its own population, it sends into the markets of the 

 world about nine million do-liars' worth of fruit annually. A speedy 

 and regular ocean service has made this fruit so common and so cheap 

 in this country that we are fast coming to regard it as food rather 

 than as a luxury. Now, with all the capacity for food production 

 in that island, we must remember that of all the food products 

 which Jamaica to-day exports, the great bulk comes from plants 

 which are not native to the island, but are introduced there. Its 

 native flora furnished the greater part of the means of support to 

 the large aboriginal population prior to the period of disco-very, but 

 is almost wholly unutilized now. I might say it is forgotten. 11} 

 awaits rediscovery. 



Again, it is a fact which history will confirm that civilized man, 

 so far as he has derived (Ms food from the land, has done so almost 

 entirely from the more fertile areas at least deserts, with rare ex- 

 ception, do not, or have not, supported a dense population. It must, 

 however, be remembered that there are plants with wholesome, 

 abundant farinaceous seeds which are especially adapted to thrive on 



