PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 181 



One of these little micro-organisms will multiply in one day to from 

 fifteen million to sixteen million five hundred thousand ; in two days to 

 two hundred and eighty-one billion five hundred thousand ; and in three 

 days one of these little micro-organisms will multiply to forty-seven 

 quadrillions. They can not multiply to that extent, it is true, because 

 before they have multiplied so greatly they will begin to destroy them- 

 selves by the excreta which they throw off, thus poisoning the soil in 

 which they live. I mention this, however, that you may realize and 

 appreciate the tremendous forces with which we are dealing when we 

 are dealing with these micro-organisms in the soil, the infinite power 

 which is exerted on the soil and on the history, practically, of civiliza- 

 tion by these tiny, infinitesimal micro-organisms with which we deal 

 in the soil. They are, I might say, the life of the soil. Without them 

 we can not grow crops. It is, therefore, well for us to remember that 

 the first thing we must do with the soil is to make it a fit habitation for 

 these micro-organisms which labor with us and for us for the upbuild- 

 ing of agricultural and horticultural industries and, therefore, for the 

 upbuilding of the civilizations which we are building and which have 

 been builded before us. 



We know that bacteria have to deal with the making of our butter. 

 Bacteria make your milk sour. They give a better flavor to your butter ; 

 they give a better aroma to your butter. The Federal department 

 to-day is actually growing bacteria stronger, more vigorous, more 

 capable of doing the work that these little micro-organisms have to do 

 in the soil and have to do in the arts and in the manufactures, and is 

 distributing them to those who want them in their business for the 

 inoculation of the soil and for the manufacture of butter. You know 

 that all diseases — typhoid, tuberculosis, anthrax, lockjaw, and kindred 

 ailments — are brought about by bacterial action. Bacteria are every- 

 where exerting an enormous influence upon the conditions that surround 

 man. We sit down to our dinners and we eat the crude food that is 

 presented to us ; I mean crude in that we can not digest it ; it can not 

 enter into and become part of the blood and the fluids of the body 

 until it has been softened, until it has been digested — that is, converted 

 into forms of matter which will make blood and the fluids of the body, 

 that it may be carried into the system to build the tissue and to sustain 

 this organism with which man does his work. That is true also in the 

 soil, that nothing can become valuable to plant life but through the 

 activities of these micro-organisms. If it be true that no mineral 

 fertilizer, inert in the soil or put in the soil itself, no phosphoric acid, 

 no potash, nor anything you may use as a fertilizer, can possibly be of 

 any benefit without the action of bacteria, then surely it devolves upon 

 you as the part of wisdom to study these things, to study the conditions 



