42 SYMBIOSIS 



According to Mr. F. A Talbot, writing in The World's Work, 

 November, 1918, the farmer's attitude towards " Nitrolim," the 

 artificial fertiliser a purely inorganic food is undergoing a 

 complete and welcome change. 



What he (the farmer) spurned five years ago he is now embracing with 

 avidity. When Nitrolim is supplied (Mr. Talbot says) the nitrogen is 

 held by the soil, forming as it were a reservoir of supply to the plant, while 

 the free lime, which by the way is given to the farmer who is called upon 

 to pay for the nitrogen content only, fcy sweetening the soil and improving 

 its texture as well as assisting the bacterial action which is for ever taking 

 place, renders the home for the roots much more congenial. 



In other words, it is " cross-food " which supplies the best 

 conditions for work and for Symbiosis, and, hence, for health and 

 true wealth. 



Dusty nitrolim (we are also told) has proved more than a match for 

 the most sturdy and aggressive charlock. Sprayed in a dry form it finds 

 the rough surface of the weed's leaves and stalks an excellent refuge, 

 especially when applied while the plague is soddened with dew or other 

 moisture. As it dissolves it exercises a destructive caustic effect, causing 

 the weed to shrivel and die. 



But upon the young grain struggling for existence it exercises no 

 deleterious effect ; indeed it comes as a welcome stimulant. The capa- 

 bility of a fertiliser to exterminate an enemy while simultaneously stim- 

 ulating the crop which is menaced is certainly something novel to 

 agriculture, and it is a characteristic which deserves to be noted more 

 widely, if only for the reason that it constitutes the most economical 

 method of eliminating a plant pest which has yet been evolved. 



And what is it that now emerges from the foregoing con- 

 siderations ? It is this : The plant is a perpetual worker, a 

 perpetual provider and an ideal capitalist. Having learnt the 

 lessons of strenuous work, having mastered the secrets of various 

 industries and become habituated to the mode of feeding most 

 appropriate to faithful pursuits, it proceeds to employ the popula- 

 tions of the soil, the land and the air, so as to make them co-operate 

 in the great work of organic civilisation. Having obtained such 

 participation to a tolerable extent, it synthetizes ever more 

 complex organic substances and contrives ever more effective 

 means of arriving at higher values in organic civilisation. By 

 constraining the bacterial and animal populations of our globe 

 to perpetual counter-services, and thus making them partners 

 in the business of organic civilisation, the plant concurrently 

 causes them to participate in the cosmic process of elevating 

 inorganic material to the stage of " organic " life, concerning 



