186 THE POSSIBILITIES 



machine-tool, which will be devised as soon as 

 there is a demand for it.* 



More than that, there is full reason to believe 

 that even this method is liable to further im- 

 provement by means of replanting. Cereals in 

 such cases would be treated as vegetables are 

 treated in horticulture. Such is, at least, the 

 idea which began to germinate since the methods 

 of cereal culture that are resorted to in China 

 and Japan became better known in Europe. 

 (See Appendix O.) 



The future a near future, I hope will show 

 what practical importance such a method of 

 treating cereals may have. But we need not 

 speculate about that future. We have already, 

 in the facts mentioned in this chapter, an ex- 

 perimental basis for quite a number of means of 

 improving our present methods of culture and of 

 largely increasing the crops. It is evident that in 

 a book which is not intended to be a manual of 

 agriculture, all I can do is to give only a few hints 

 to set people thinking for themselves upon this 

 subject. But the little that has been said is 

 sufficient to show that we have no right to com- 

 plain of over-population, and no need to fear it 

 in the future. Our means of obtaining from the 

 soil whatever we want, under any climate and 

 upon any soil, have lately been improved at such 

 * See Appendix N. 



