THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 23 



United States to feed the world. United States Consul- 

 General Way reports that " Russia, under favorable 

 conditions, could supply the world with wheat." India 

 could probably do the same, and the Argentine Republic 

 would not fall far behind. 



A single State, properly fertilized, is capable of bear- 

 ing vegetables to feed the population of the whole 

 Union. And there is enough fertilizer in Boston harbor 

 to meet this requirement for very many years. There 

 are States in the West equal to the task of supplying 

 meat for the whole people of North America if the lands 

 were properly treated. The little Annapolis Valley in 

 Nova Scotia has sufficient apple-orchard area, with trees 

 in bearing and properly fertilized, to produce sufficient 

 apples to glut the markets of Great Britain and New 

 England. The fertilizer lies in the Annapolis basin. 

 California could be made to supply this whole continent 

 with most fruits. 



There can be no exhaustion of the soil if properly 

 treated. There can be no destruction of matter in the 

 consumption of the products of the farm, but there may 

 be displacement. By intelligent guidance their forces 

 may be continually augmented for the increase of both 

 animal and vegetable life. If the proper returns are 

 made to the soil, the demands of man upon it can never 

 exhaust it. 



It is the order of nature that the surface of the globe 

 be more and more adapted to the support of vegetable 

 and animal life. The results of decomposition of rocks, 

 and the breathing of gases from beneath the crust of the 

 earth and from our broad oceans, are being taken up con- 

 tinually by plant life through its leaves and roots ; to 

 decay and become soil, or to go into animal matter ; all 



