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large populations, and the growth of agricultural 
knowledge, while it prolonged, could not render 
permanent the food capacity of the soil. Nor has 
modern science devised means of compensation that are 
steady and lasting, although there is a possibility that 
by the culture of nitrifying bacteria, the requisite 
supplies may be obtained from the nitrogen of the 
atmosphere. The problem is one of gravity, for not 
only is the soil divested of its nutritive salts by the 
growing plant, but every drop of rain that finds its way 
to the nearest water course bears to the all-devouring 
sea a portion of the treasure that man seems impotent 
to conserve. Jo that ravening sea, therefore) tite 
apparent bourne of all terrene substance, must he have 
ultimate recourse ; there must he regain some measure 
of that of which he is incessantly drained. 
It is a century since Malthus startled a blissful world 
into the consciousness of an impending calamity, and, 
although the baleful spectre that he then invoked has 
receded before the advance of an _ ever-expanding 
knowledge, it yet lurks in the shadows of a fateful 
future. It was his contention, as it is that of many 
thoughtful men, that the steady increase of population 
tends to the exhaustion of its alimentary resources, and 
that the utmost development of its limited area of 
tillable land would ultimately be inadequate to satisfy 
the demands uponit. Apart from the accomplishments 
of modern science, there were certain factors that he 
disregarded, and the catastrophe was therefore made to 
appear of woeful imminence, but with its relegation to 
posterity public interest subsided. However remote 
may be the day that dawns upon a famishing and a 
diminishing world, there can be but little doubt that its 
substantial deprivation of animal food is a near contin- 
gency.. In the dietary of the great bulk of its population 
it already has no place, and but rarely in the greater 
portion of the remainder. Meat affords a stimulating 
