per acre, but demand and actually receive $500, $1,000 and, if 

 covered with glass, fully $10,000 net per acre. These pro- 

 gressive men, like the Paris gardener, also defy climate and soil. 

 We will not attempt to detail the steps which have led up 

 to this satisfactory condition for both producer and consumer. 

 Suffice it to say that it is due partly to intensive methods which 

 have been worked out by practical, hard-headed men, and 

 partly to scientific research. It is a splendid example of Science 

 and Practice going hand in hand — of the selection and breeding 

 of seeds and plants, of successfully combating plant diseases 

 and insects, of conserving and distributing the needed moisture, 

 and, finally, of utilizing all the sources and forces of fertility. 



Plant Food Supply 



Many 



New 



Sources 



New 

 Discoveries 



As manufacturers, studying ways and means of supplying 

 the plant food which is required by intensive methods in some 

 sections and by wasteful methods in other sections, we are 

 often asked where it is all coming from, and if we can keep up 

 with the demand Knowing what science has done and is 

 capable of doing, we have no fear but that so far as plant food is 

 concerned we shall find the needed supply. Just now our chief 

 concern is for nitrogen and potash. Discoveries will render the 

 nitrogen of the air available — in fact, discoveries which are 

 claimed to be a commercial success have already been made. The 

 bacteriologist, through his study of Hfe of the soil, will also 

 help us in this direction. We are now, through the efforts of 

 the chemist, also utilizing numerous by-products of our in- 

 dustries which a few years ago were thrown away, while new and 

 extensive discoveries of phosphoric acid, in the shape of mineral 

 phosphates, are being made. It only remains now to find 

 some native source of potash, hke that in North Germany, 

 or some feasible way of rendering avail able the potash in 

 feldspar rocks. Then we shall have rounded out the circle 

 in America. 



32 



