THE MAN 



and to what extent these differences were hereditary and 

 capable of piling up in the distinct strain of high or low pro- 

 tein, oil, or starch. The result was one of the world's most 

 significant breeding experiments, the first in which the chem- 

 ical constitution of a seed had been altered by systematic se- 

 lection. And yet Doctor Hopkins was not a geneticist; he 

 simply followed his own mind and methods in logical steps 

 and to logical conclusions. 



The same mental logic compelled him to say that you can- 

 not compound a fertilizer or otherwise prescribe treatment 

 for a soil until you know its special composition, any more 

 than can a physician prescribe a remedy until he has first 

 diagnosed the disease that is troubling the patient. It was 

 the same logic that made him oppose the phraseology "phos- 

 phoric acid" when it was phosphorus and not acid of any kind 

 that was meant. He considered it illogical to advise farmers 

 with one breath to apply lime to the soil to correct acidity, 

 and with the next to apply an acid, when all acids are harmful 

 and when there was not necessarily any acid in the material 

 applied, necessitating an explanation that would hardly suffice. 



He reasoned also that it is more than folly to buy lime- 

 stone by the carload to correct acidity, then to use fertilizers 

 loaded with sulphuric acid to half their full weight, only to 

 increase the freight and to make necessary still heavier ap- 

 plications of limestone. 



It was this same analytical and logical habit of mind that 

 led him to ultimate conclusions in fertility matters where other 

 men — I had almost said all other men — stopped part way and 

 with immediate results. He saw clearly what stands to reason ; 

 namely, that no matter what the system or how immediately 

 successful, the application of plant food must be not only equal 

 but somewhat in excess of that removed by cropping, else the 

 farmer is guilty of "soil robbery" and the end would be ex- 

 haustion and abandonment, which, when it had gone far 



63 



