CYRIL GEORGE HOPKINS 



that he could find — a farm in southern Illinois which had been 

 abandoned for five years — purchased it, and named it "Poor- 

 land Farm." I discussed with him at the time the profitable- 

 ness of the venture, arguing that he would make a good deal 

 more money if he would buy a farm in central Illinois, but 

 he had a different idea. He asserted that he would make that 

 farm produce yields equal to those of the corn belt. This 

 was a great boast to make for southern Illinois lands, but he 

 made it good. Ten years later he had produced thirty-five 

 bushels of wheat to the acre and it was then that he wrote 

 that great circular "Bread from Stones." It was literally true 

 that he had grown bread from stones, for it was a yield which 

 was due alone to the application of the raw rock phosphate 

 of Tennessee and the limestone of Illinois. Since then these 

 yields have been surpassed by those of which any corn-belt 

 farmer would be proud. But it is not just what Doctor Hop- 

 kins has done on this one farm that is of so much value, but 

 rather the possibilities it has shown to the many. By fol- 

 lowing the practices put into effect on Poorland Farm, any 

 other man on the same kind of land can secure the same re- 

 sults. I know of one man in southern Illinois who has put 

 the teachings of Doctor Hopkins into practice and has got 

 over fifty bushels of wheat to the acre, a yield which would 

 be a credit to any farmer in Illinois. 



When I speak of these things — of what Doctor Hopkins 

 has done and the farmers who have practiced his teachings 

 have done — you can begin to see the possibilities and signifi- 

 cance of his work. I have become convinced that there is not 

 a foot of the ground in Illinois or perhaps anywhere else but 

 that could be made to produce the very largest crops and made 

 to produce them profitably to the farmer. As I think of these 

 possibilities, it seems to me that the only limit to food pro- 

 duction and the human life resulting from food production is 

 simply this — the limits of human knowledge and human labor, 

 and to both of these how largely has our Doctor Hopkins 

 contributed. 



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