Science and Progress 551 



Science and Farming. Science has revolutionized farming. 

 It has gradually replaced the crude ox and horse-drawn imple- 

 ments with marvelous power-driven plows, harvesters, and other 

 machines. One worker on the farm may now accomplish what 

 formerly required many men. 



Science has given the farmer knowledge of the soil and of 

 fertilizers to enrich it, thus insuring more bountiful crops. It has 

 made him familiar with common diseases and parasites that attack 

 his crops and animals and has taught him how to combat them. 

 Through Science new varieties of plants and finer breeds of ani- 

 mals have been produced, which yield higher grades of food and 

 other essential products. 



Science has shown the farmer that dry areas, once considered 

 worthless, may produce crops by dry-farming and that other desert 

 areas may be made exceedingly fruitful by irrigation with water 

 stored behind great dams. 



Once the farmer grew crops only for his own use or to sell 

 in his neighborhood. Now good roads and automobile trucks 

 enable him to reach the railways. Scientific methods of packing 

 and refrigerating make possible the safe shipment of perishable 

 crops long distances by rail or ship. The farmer, who once served 

 only his own locality, now serves the whole world. 



Science and Health. Perhaps the greatest service Science 

 has rendered us is in the field of health. By scientific methods in 

 the cure and prevention of disease, the average length of life is 

 being steadily increased. 



In early days it was believed that diseased people were 

 possessed of evil spirits, and strange and useless ceremonies were 

 performed to drive the spirits out. Little or nothing, however, 

 was done for the patients themselves, and they often died. Then, 

 gradually, it was realized that sickness was the result of some- 

 thing wrong with the body. Scientific study began to discover 

 the functions of the body and to determine the right medical treat- 

 ment for illnesses. 



Following the invention of the microscope early in the 17th 

 century, scientists quickly discovered the relation of microorgan- 

 isms to infectious diseases. Pasteur and others, studying these 



