94 FOOD FOR PLANTS 



favorable and the saving of manures are both to be 

 encouraged. These alone, however, are not suffi- 

 cient to make up for the great losses of Nitrogen 

 that occur every year through weathering, through 

 denitrating bacteria and crop removals. 



It is to be borne in mind that there is not enough 

 Nitrogen in commercial form produced in the world 

 to make up for these annual soil losses, and that the 

 soils of the world will require available Nitrogen in 

 commercial form in increasing quantities. This, in 

 my judgment, is consistent with sound agriculture, 

 and the fertilizer industry is as sound fundamentally 

 as agriculture itself. 



It may be borne in mind also that the rate of pro- 

 duction of Nitrogenous fertilizers has increased 

 throughout the world as a whole faster than have 

 the other fertilizer products. 



It is a source of great satisfaction to know that 

 programs for agricultural progress as proposed by 

 Experiment Stations and Agricultural Colleges have 

 been accepted by railway agricultural representatives 

 and carried out so thoroughly by them in co-opera- 

 tion with agents and with the Agricultural Press. 

 Co-operation along the line of these programs will 

 make for agricultural success in the future. The 

 Agricultural and Industrial Departments of our rail- 

 ways have by their courage and skill played a highly 

 honorable and effective part in these developments. 



In passing it should be noted that in the most 

 highly civilized parts of the world railway develop- 

 ment is the highest. Before the railroads all in- 

 dustrial development was local. Every community 

 was like China — hermit-like, undeveloped and obliged 



