6 NUT GROWING 



organism too easily modified would be illy adapted 

 to survival in the world of varying influences play- 

 ing upon it. A certain sturdiness, that is to say, a 

 certain resistance to modification, seems essential 

 for the whole range of processes controlled by the 

 nervous system. Is not this, after all, the funda- 

 mental law of habit? On the other hand, an or- 

 ganism which is not susceptible of modification, that 

 is, which cannot form new habits, is also inefficient. 

 The organism which has just the proper balance be- 

 tween its tendency to function along the lines of 

 habits already formed, and the tendency to modify 

 these habits where necessary, is, of course, the most 

 efficient." 



Huxley said that, in comparison with the ravages 

 of that terrible monster over-population, all other 

 problems are effaced, insignificant. Some of us do 

 not believe that any such monster is more real than 

 is the hoop snake. 



If the increase of population in any locality is 

 accompanied by large improvements in the arts of 

 providing, distributing, and making use of food the 

 effects of over-crowding are not injurious to a race 

 in so far as the food supply question may be in- 

 volved. Nut trees which may be grown upon al- 

 most every habitable acre in the temperate or trop- 

 ical world introduce a new, large improvement in 

 the art of production. Distribution is facilitated by 

 the fact that nuts are not perishable like meats and 

 vegetables and we have plenty of time for gathering 

 the crop and spreading it about over various mar- 

 kets. Improvement in ways for making use of nut 



