THE NEW FRONTIER 175 



mal life, become a region for profitable harvest. The parent ele- 

 ments of topsoil, the parent elements of life itself, cannot elude 

 us. We have our earth, with the roots of vegetation to search 

 out and mine the mineral elements from it; we have our sun- 

 trap and the sun, to catch and hold the elements from the air 

 while we transport them to the place of ultimate use. And we 

 have the earthworm, holding the secret of soil-building and wait- 

 ing to become the servant of man in the day and hour when man 

 needs a new servant. 



As has been pointed out, any individual can harness the 

 earthworm to build soil. Such individual use is a very simple 

 matter. However, in the larger use of earthworms, their utiliza- 

 tion becomes an engineering problem to be worked out by en- 

 gineers. In the larger use, we can utilize standard heavy ma- 

 chinery, such as tractors, bulldozers, dredges, road-buiding ma- 

 chinery, compost grinding machines, shredders. Eventually all 

 sewage and garbage disposal will become a soil-building opera- 

 tion, in its final stages a biological process. The waste products 

 of the world will feed the world. The garbage of a city will be 

 transformed into enough topsoil to produce food for the city in 

 a recurring cycle. It is not our purpose to attempt to go into 

 engineering details, but to indicate and point out the possibilities, 

 based on known facts. 



Throughout the ages of the past the earthworm in nature 

 has been a master-builder of topsoil on the old frontiers. The 

 earthworm is destined to become a master-builder of topsoil on 

 the new frontier, harnessed and used intensively in the controlled 

 service of man. 



