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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1214 



ditions which exist here. They are inti- 

 mately connected with the resources which 

 science has discovered and learned to use, 

 for it is reasonably certain that our prog- 

 ress in this direction is not ended, and 

 quite possible that it is only well begun. 

 Progress in the utilization of earth re- 

 sources involves the results of sciences 

 other than geology — especially chemistry 

 and physics. 



It is of course known, but not widely 

 realized, that a large proportion of the 

 people of the earth gets its living from 

 the utilization of the materials of geology. 

 The workers of the soil are not only making 

 use of geologic materials daily, but are de- 

 pendent on them. The efficiency of soil- 

 workers would, in the long run, be far 

 greater, if they understood how soils come 

 into existence and how they are lost, how 

 they are exhausted and how their exhaus- 

 tion may be prevented. To supply this 

 knowledge to soil-workers would be to in- 

 crease the products of their labor, to better 

 their condition, and to feed the rest of the 

 world more cheaply. Have we any right 

 to withhold such knowledge from the youth 

 who are to deal with the soil? It is true 

 that they learn much empirically. It is 

 true that agricultural colleges and the 

 Federal Department of Agriculture are 

 supplying much useful information to 

 large numbers of men, young and old; it 

 is true that almost any man can gain 

 needed information of a practical sort on 

 these subjects, if he is well enough in- 

 formed to know what he needs, and how 

 to get it. 



But in spite of state and federal efforts 

 in this direction, large numbers of soil 

 workers are still as ignorant as may be of 

 the principles involved in the making and 

 preservation of the material with which 

 they work. Many of them are doing as 

 their fathers did, beicause their fathers 



did it, just as we who ought to know better 

 are still requiring or encouraging young 

 men and women to study the things that 

 their ancestors studied, because their an- 

 cestors studied them. No one can say 

 how much more efficient our farmers would 

 be, if they understood the principles of 

 soil making, soil waste and soil exliaustion ; 

 but it is fair to infer that if they under- 

 stood these things, the result would be so 

 convincing that it would be better to neglect 

 almost anything else rather than these 

 things, in the education of those who are 

 to gain not only their living, but the living 

 of the larger part of mankind, from the 

 soil. 



Then there are the workers in mines of 

 all sorts, who take from the earth beneath 

 the soil the many things necessary for the 

 on-going of modern life, and for the prog- 

 ress of commercial and industrial life in 

 the future. This has been called the age 

 of steel. It were better called the age of 

 metals, for much besides steel is involved. 

 The discovery of metals and fuels and 

 progress in their utilization is tied up 

 closely with the progress of geologic knowl- 

 edge, and without the progress of geologic 

 science the advances which have been made 

 would not have been possible. It is of 

 course true that in the final production of 

 metals from ores chemistry has played an 

 important part, but it is geology which 

 has led the way in the discovery and ex- 

 ploitation o,f! the raw material, because 

 it has discovered the principles, or some 

 of them, involved in their origin. It is true 

 that geologic knowledge on the part of one 

 man may direct the development of re- 

 sources where many do the actual work; 

 but it would be interesting to know how 

 the mining industry as a whole would be 

 affected, if aU mine-workers understood the 

 facts and principles involved in the origin 

 of the materials which they extract from 



