512 ' THEN AND NO U' 



improved nozzles, et cetera, and learn to use them at 

 the right time. But in order to discover the kinds, 

 times and seasons, a fair acquaintance must be 

 made with the Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Cole- 

 optera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera and all the omni- 

 present-optera, or, as many friends as enemies may 

 be destroyed. 



It will readily be seen that mere physical energy 

 counts for less and practical knowledge for more, 

 now than at any other period of human existence. 

 There is no use of grumbling and looking backward, 

 for the track is cold and the game is in front ; it 

 may be difficult to overtake, but if so, the pleasure 

 is the longer and the reward the greater. The 

 then, of the old cow pumpkins, sour grapes and wild 

 plums has passed away. The now, of Reine Claude 

 plums, at two cent each, Crawfords "cheap at five 

 for a quarter," and Niagaras at ten cents a bunch, 

 has been fully ushered in. A little sand, alkali, 

 heat and skill, and they are preserved, and man 

 partakes of food fit for the gods, without spot or 

 blemish. 



It may be asked, is this progress, or only an 

 ingenious trick by which food is made dearer, 

 " cornered? " It is found that little or no improve- 

 ment can be made in plants or animals without 

 improving their food ; knowing the kind of food a 

 nation consumes the stage of their cultivation can 

 be accurately determined. The problem then was 

 quantity ; now, it is quality. Then, it was no 

 uncommon thing to send two barrels of poor fruit 

 to pay the freight of the third, which was no better. 



The soil, the plant, the animal and law, these are 

 the factors with which we have to do ; even in this 

 advanced age they are too often unknown quantities. 

 The value of the X and Y must be discovered, or 

 they must be eliminated, or they will eliminate the 

 factor. Now we discover the secrets of growth 

 and decay, reproduction and development, energy 

 and work, in order that the lower and the grosser 

 may be changed, according to the law of the cor- 

 relation of forces, into the higher and more refined. 

 Then the chief effort was to keep the wolf from the 

 door and satisfy the protest of the land, as it called 

 for justice, by declaring that one from three leaves 

 three. The grandchildren have discovered the mis- 

 take, though they have too great respect for their 

 ancestors and that ancient Dabol arithmetic to 

 make much stir about it. Now the effort is to 

 discover how the three sluggish units may be made 

 to do the work of six, so that one from three will 

 leave five. 



But how is this to be done ? By going on setting 



ON THE FARM. 



fruit trees in fence-corners and on stony, steep 

 hillsides which have been impoverished by fifty 

 Years of cropping, and then leaving them to the 

 tender mercies of the cattle and the myriad hungry 

 insect enemies, subject to hunger and thirst till they 

 look like Pharaoh's "lean kine," and need no 

 Joseph to foretell that they are but "the visible in- 

 dices of a coming famine ? The grandchildren ed- 

 ucated to the rule of three will never learn how to 

 prevent or combat these plagues, but they will soon 

 be painfully aware that there are more of them than 

 visited the Egyptians, and it will be strange if they 

 do not imitate the Israelites, and pay themselves 

 for their unrequited toil, by "borrowing" and flee- 

 ing to a land where physical law is observed and 

 justice reigns. Happy for them if they flee before 

 they have lost faith in the law which governs all 

 nature's modes of dealing with man, and have some- 

 how discovered that mind is above matter, that 

 servants obey those who know how to direct, that 

 discoveries are made by those who can see, and that 

 seeing is the result of long and intelligent inspec- 

 tion ! A fact may be found out by accident, but 

 the putting of it to the best use can only be ac- 

 complished by one who has learned the laws appli- 

 cable to the facts. A Pennsylvanian stumbled upon 

 the telephone, but a Bell commanded it to transmit 

 every sound, tone and inflection, and it obeyed. 



At first the land was very kind to the youthful 

 nation ; now she asks for the utmost skill of trained 

 manhood. A soil capable of producing a good wheat 

 crop contains in the first twelve inches from five to ten 

 thousand pounds of potash, three to six thousand 

 of phosphoric acid and three to eight thousand of 

 nitrogen. In one case, it was found that of the 4,650 

 pounds of nitrogen in a soil, only sixty-three were 

 available for the growth of plants. A crop of good 

 Indian corn removes in ear and stalk from sixty to 

 sixty-five pounds of nitrogen per acre, so that this 

 fertile land could produce but one crop of corn, 

 unless the inert nitrogen could be set free. A 

 horse tied never so close to a locked granery full of 

 oats will be none the fatter unless his owner have 

 skill enough to pick the lock. 



Every occupier of land has the usufruct right to 

 these valuable elements of plant food, if he have 

 the skill to take them from the soil ; he may put 

 them into circulation, but lie may not waste or destroy 

 them. The particle of matter liberated to-day passes 

 into the plant which nourishes the animal which 

 ministers to man's wants, and then is returned to 

 the soil in a more available condition than at first ! 

 Dormant energy, which might as well not have been 



