DOCTOR HOPKINS' WORK 



By FRANK I. MANN 

 Member of the University Soils Advisory Committee 



HUMANITY and civilization will not fully realize for an- 

 other generation or more what was gained from the life 

 of Doctor Hopkins, nor what was lost by his premature death. 

 We may honor him now with our utmost reverence, but his 

 greatest honors will be on the pages of the future, when the 

 benefits that come from his having lived are more appreciated. 

 Great needs call out for great men ; some come tardily, 

 some come at first call, and some anticipate the call. Among 

 the latter was Doctor Hopkins. He saw the need coming, and 

 almost before the first call he was preparing himself to meet 

 the great need. He saw the changing ratio between popula- 

 tion and food production ; he saw the occupation of the last 

 large areas of productive land ; he saw the reduction in food 

 production on large areas ; he saw abundant food as the foun- 

 dation of a happy people and a higher civilization. What he 

 saw gave him a life work ; always with a love for humanity 

 and a hope for higher civilization. 



The principles of food production had been given scientific 

 study for a few decades before Doctor Hopkins' time and a 

 school of soil fertility had been developed. This old school was 

 based on false teachings, procured only temporary results, and 

 when carried out long enough, destroyed the productiveness 

 of the land. It was advocated largely by commercial interests 

 and for profit. It took the master mind of a man like Doctor 

 Hopkins to separate the true from the false and to develop 

 a school of soil fertility based on permanency, economy, and 

 high productiveness; a system which leads to higher produc- 

 tion the longer it is practiced ; a school which considers and 

 solves the food problem for many generations. The great 

 minds of the world are those who have reduced complex propo- 

 sitions to simple equations; who have changed complexity of 



