But having availed ourselves of the aid of meteorology, we have a story
that is full of marvelous interest--the great story of the evolution of
the cornfield. In this story we find many alluring details of
evaporation, air movements, precipitation, erosion, and the attraction
of gravitation. But in all this we are but lingering in the anteroom of
agriculture.
=The importance of botany.=--Advancing but a single step we find
ourselves in the realm of botany, which is a field so vast and so
fascinating that men have devoted an entire lifetime to its wonders, and
then realized that they had but made a beginning in the way of exploring
its possibilities. In our own time Mr. Burbank has made his name known
throughout the world by his work in one phase of this subject, and a
score of other Burbanks might be working with equal success in other
branches of the subject and still not trench upon one another's domain.
Venturesome, indeed, would be the prophet who would attempt to predict
the developments in the field of botany in the next century in the way
of providing food, shelter, and clothing for the race. The possibilities
stagger the imagination and the prophet stands bewildered as he faces
this ever-widening field. But botany, vast as it is seen to be, is only
one of the branching sciences connected with agriculture.
=Physics and chemistry.=--Another advance brings us into the wide and
fertile field of physics and chemistry, for in these subjects we find
the means of interpreting much in agriculture that without their aid
would elude our grasp.
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