THE SOIL 61 



way that nature grow them, trusting to chance 

 that the harvest would be sufficient. This 

 period lasted a long time and the improvement 

 in methods and results was slow because it was 

 a natural evolution not marked by any great 

 incentive on the part of the cultivator. It runs 

 parallel to human history from the beginning 

 of the last century, several thousand years 

 back. In this long period of time men pro- 

 gressed in agriculture just about as slowly as 

 they did in the "art of living together" which 

 we call civilization. 



Then, by leaps and bounds, our agricultural 

 development grew, keeping pace with our other 

 progress in discovery and invention. Men had 

 learned to experiment and through experiment- 

 ing had learned in years what would have taken 

 centuries of natural evolution to teach them. 

 Through experiment, too, some of the half 

 truths of former centuries were broken down 

 and were replaced by whole truths. The age 

 of superstition had passed. 



The history of apple-growing is an epitome 

 of the history of agriculture. For years, cen- 

 turies in fact, men had eaten apples. For the 

 most part they were inferior fruit as we look 

 upon it to-day. Then, the natural improve- 

 ments made by nature were noted and perpet- 

 uated in a half-hearted way which marked our 

 fruit culture of a century ago. Even fifty years 



