erest in suppressing them._ To our agrarians, a good crop is to-day a
horror--although the same is prayed for in all the churches--because it
lowers prices. Consequently, they are no wise anxious for a double and
threefold nutritive power of their cereals; it would likewise tend to
lower prices. Present society is everywhere at fisticuffs with its own
development.

The preservation of the soil in a state of fertility depends primarily
upon fertilization. The obtaining of fertilizers is, accordingly, for
future society also one of the principal tasks.[200] Manure is to the
soil what food is to man, and just as every kind of food is not equally
nourishing to man, neither is every kind of manure of equal benefit to
the soil. The soil must receive back exactly the same chemical
substances that it gave up through a crop; and the chemical substances
especially needed by a certain vegetable must be given to the soil in
larger quantities. Hence the study of chemistry and its practical
application will experience a development unknown to-day.

Animal and human excrements are particularly rich in the chemical
elements that are fittest for the reproduction of human food. Hence the
endeavor must be to secure the same in the fullest quantity and cause
its proper distribution. On this head too modern society sins
grievously. Cities and industrial centers, that receive large masses of
foodstuffs, return to the soil but a slight part of their valuable
offal.[201] The consequence is that the fields, situated at great
distances from the cities and industrial centers, and which yearly send
their products to the same, suffer greatly from a dearth of manure; the
offal that these farms themselves yield is often not enough, because the
men and beasts who live on them consume but a small part of the product.
Thus frequently a soil-vandalism is practiced, that cripples the land
and decreases the crops. All countries that export agricultural products
mainly, but receive no manure back, inevitably go to ruin through the
gradual impoverishment of the soil. This is the case with Hungary,
Russia, the Danubian Principalities, North America, etc. Artificial
fertilizers, guano in particular, indeed substitute the offal of men and
beasts; but many farmers can not obtain the same in sufficient
quantity; it is too dear; at any rate, it is an inversion of nature to
import manure from great distances, while it is allowed to go to waste
nearby.

Several y