556 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that the result of doing other things 

 scientifically was to diminish very 

 greatly the importance of the ar- 

 rangements for scientific killing. A 

 nation governed by science would be 

 a peace-loving and peace-maintain- 

 ing nation. 



AGRICULTURE AND NATIONAL LIFE. 



SOME very interesting points of 

 view are presented in an article on 

 the food supply of England which 

 appeared a few months ago in The 

 New Century Review of London. 

 The writer, Mr. Richard Higgs, Jr., 

 is very unwilling to admit the com- 

 monly accepted view that Great 

 Britain must be dependent upon 

 other countries for the food her peo- 

 ple require. He holds that all that 

 is required to make the production 

 of grain profitable in England is the 

 application of higher intelligence 

 and more businesslike methods to 

 the work of the farm. " Speaking 

 generally," he says, " agriculture has 

 been of late a despised industry; in- 

 tellectual activity has not been 

 brought to bear on it; the men of 

 force and enterprise have failed to 

 recognize that it offers an absolutely 

 unrivaled sphere for the exercise of 

 personal initiative, skill, and knowl- 

 edge. . . . Agriculture has not been 

 regarded as a means of assisting 

 human development, but rather as a 

 hindrance to progress. A low type 

 of manhood and a slow, unprogres- 

 sive condition of life are usually re- 

 garded as indispensable to agricul- 

 ture, and consequently it has been 

 neglected by reformers who desire to 

 further the progress of the race." 



The writer proceeds to describe 

 the various ways in which, as he be- 

 lieves, agriculture might be made 

 more profitable, partly through low- 

 ering of the cost of production, and 

 partly by improvement of the yield; 

 and, finally, he sets forth the dis- 

 agreeable and very serious conclu- 

 sions which flow from the proposition 

 if it is to be accepted as established 



that Great Britain can not feed 

 herself by the remunerative produc- 

 tion of wheat in the face of low 

 prices. In the first place, the na- 

 tional policy must be one of "bluff 

 and weakness toward other nations: 

 bluff, because it will not answer our 

 purpose to appear weak; and weak- 

 ness, because, seeing that possible 

 enemies are our largest feeders, we 

 are not in a condition to deal with 

 other nations on equal terms, but 

 must ever face the galling necessity 

 of being dependent upon the good 

 will of a few powerful nations for 

 our daily bread." A nation so situ- 

 ated must be " in the front rank of 

 the nations which are engaging in 

 the mad scramble after markets"; 

 must give itself over " to all the 

 orthodox requirements of diplomacy 

 by engaging in bullying, cringing, 

 lying, deceit, and massacre, in order 

 to secure an outlet for its manufac- 

 tured goods." Such a fact further 

 implies " the eternal persistence on 

 the face of the land of those hideous 

 monstrosities our manufacturing 

 towns ; those excrescences which, like 

 the dragon of old, are daily vomiting 

 fire and smoke, and by their foulness 

 are blasting and cursing the lives 

 of the people and causing the phys- 

 ical, mental, and moral deterioration 

 of the race. ... It banishes the 

 poetry, the music, and the glories of 

 an agricultural life, and condemns 

 untold millions to the artificial and 

 unhealthy moral atmosphere of our 

 towns." 



It may be said that all this has 

 not much application to the state of 

 things in these happy United States. 

 It has application to at least this 

 extent, that our towns too are becom- 

 ing bloated and our country places 

 starved. We are fully at one with 

 the writer in his estimate of the 

 agricultural life, and believe that no 

 greater service could be rendered to 

 any country than to place its agri- 

 culture on the moral and intellec- 

 tual, as well as on the economic, level 



