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Show CHEMISTRY AND AGKU'l LITRE (E. F. H. P.U'PE, K. M.) There is no division of science as important to agriculture as chemistry. Emerson aptly said: "Our globe, ns seen by Coil, is n transparent law, not n mass of facts. The law dissolves the fact, and holds if fluid. All "v - things are dissolved to their center, by their cause." Until very recent years, agriculture overlooked the economic ec-onomic law of chemistry in its development; de-velopment; but under out present day research the law of chemistry has dissolved established facts, and is readjusting re-adjusting agricultural economics to a point as yet unheard of, and bring-j intr the farmer nearer to an industrial indus-trial realization of his calling. In the ISth century, Leeuwenhoek, one of the first to study microbes, in an age that was still shackled by j superstitious traditions. This poor Dutch janitor had the courage to' look through his home made microscope micro-scope and was the first man to see. microbes under a microscope. In his day no instruments existed, he had to make his own, he had no standard stand-ard knowledge to guide him, but in his inspiration he pioneered the way to microscopic studies, and without as yet being able to properly reason1 the full effects of his discovery, he; plowed through his vision, and by so doing made it possible for the fu- hire generations to study biology, and results in chemistry of agriculture, agricul-ture, lie unwittingly had dissolved then established facts to the center of their cause. After ;.U facts are of iVroatest value when used to determine deter-mine consequences, especially in the production of any thin;', and with old standards toppling into oblivion, and new standards arising, is it not time for the farmer to bee. me an industrialist indus-trialist in his production of farm products? The most vital thing we have today in economics is the effect j of TODAY'S new developments on TOMORROW'S operating statement, j This law can well apply to all .branches of endeavor. Kew standards of merchandising affect the farmer as well as the seller of products. New sources of buying j power are rising today, and this cause and effect is chiefly responsible for .the phenomenal rise of prices in copper, cop-per, lead, nickel, and ether minerals ; proportionately, each finding an industrial in-dustrial niche in the markets of the present day, unheard of 2 years ago. So why not in agricultural products? No greater consumption is made on earth than products derived from agriculture, ag-riculture, and the natural law of reproduction re-production in organic life upon which ! agriculture depends, whether it is plant or animal, gives it great advan-! advan-! tape over other industries. It reproduces what it sells today 'for tomorrow's market, fulfilling thereby a complete economic cycle unknown un-known in any other industry, as a metal once mined never returns to Mother Earth again, but a plant or an animal is reproduced into cycles productivity, but with all that agriculture agri-culture is at the mercy of natural enemies of organic life, and without the aid of chemistry could not rise above the farmers of the ISth century, cen-tury, when studies in microscopies were as yet unknown. However the cience of chemistry has aided agri--'ut"re on its climb upward in the , a vh of economic history of the world, and is opening a door today to agriculture that is amazing the world. j Naturally as the scope of the mar-Vis mar-Vis enlarge, so does the scope of competition, and in this day and age I entirely new trade relations have !i e?n made, as well as a new generation genera-tion with emphatic new ideas, and the farmer who will and cannot rise with the new tide, is bound to failure in the end. As his economic balance cannot encompass the new era, he must adjust ad-just himself to it in his development and his farm products, and his relations rela-tions in the markets he seeks. What agriculture reeds is the proper instruments to go ahead in a field that holds such vast possibilities, that its magnitude as yet has not been measured by scientists. After all science can only succeed as it developes its relations to the aims of the business of today, so that its factor fac-tor in economics can face the business busi-ness of tomorrow and agriculture must by nature of its plans, follow science more closely into the future, if it will survive as an industry. Many at this time would feel the statement impossible of realization were I to state that the farmer of the future will largely fit in the r economic plan of industrial chemistry, chemis-try, and yet the statement is not one ' of pure fancy. Every farm today is a potential chemical factory, anil always has been, but being never developed in that direction, it lacked therefor flexibility in the adaption of its products, and farms lose heavily from waste. It might be forecast that in the future the farmer will raise raw materials for the factory, besides field crops, and his aims will likely be in the field of carbohydrates, carbohy-drates, fatty acids making materials, amino-acids, heterocyclic compounds", rather than field crops. IIo will raise in his particular locality lo-cality whatever plant or organic life that will give him the largest yield at the lowest cost, and for chemical chemi-cal compounds then in demand at the time. If for instance he finds markets for alpha-cellulose, used in paper and lingerie manufacturing of today, as in Gernumy, he may then cultivate weeds. If he finds a market for polymerised methylmutadiene products pro-ducts commonly called caoutchouc, he then would raise milk weeds, and might add here that Edison is making extensive research in Florida in milk weeds as to their uses in the chemical chemi-cal industries, and some thought has been given it in Idaho some years ago. Such raw materials find their way to the chemical plants who in turn make your rayon silk socks with, and the fine looking ivory sets used in milady's boudoir. Without chemistry the silk industry would have died a natural death 15 years ago, and it might be useful to quote here that anly about 15 per cent of industrial silks used today in extile industries are made from silk worms product, but chemically made silk represents most of the silks we wear and use n our furnishings today, and their irigin is in organic chemical pro-lucts pro-lucts in part. (To be continued.) , |