184 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 
In agriculture, the oldest of the arts, the transfor- 
mations due to science are scarcely less marked. From the 
time of the ancient Greek, when farm practice was often 
based on dogmatic traditions, to the present time when the 
principles underlying agriculture are well understood, the 
methods employed have changed radically. Practically all 
of this change has come during the last century since 
science has been used in solving the problems of the land. 
Before 1840, when Liebig finally demonstrated the 
methods by which plants obtain their food, soil management 
was based on erroneous and wasteful ideas. Since that 
time the advances in agriculture have been so rapid that 
.volumes would be required to record the discoveries. Every 
phase of farming has been improved until today one man 
is able to produce as much as was formerly produced by 
many. This means that the products of the farm can be 
furnished at a more reasonable rate, and also that many 
of those formerly required to produce the world’s supply of 
farm products are now at liberty to engage in other pro- 
ductive enterprises. 
Probably sufficient has been said to show how all the 
arts and industries of mankind have been profoundly in- 
fluenced by the work of science. In brief, without the re- 
sults of science we would find ourselves in isolated com- 
munities, dependent on local production, with no adequate 
means of transportation or communication, and subject to 
the ravages of disease. We would be forced to content our- 
selves with very few personal conveniences; and, worst of 
all, our minds would be dominated largely by superstitious 
ignorance regarding our surroundings. With the aid of 
science man is able to become master of his environment; 
he may harness the forces of nature and use them to ad- 
vance his own welfare as well as to make the earth an 
abiding place worthy of his God-given intelligence. Best 
of all, he is enabled to obey that part of the first command 
wherein he was given dominion over the earth and was 
required to subdue it. 
