flesh is similar. The combination of flour, water, salt and
yeast, by heat, first mild and then intense, into a loaf of bread is a
good illustration of a change of qualities by rearrangement of the
elements of a substance. It is sometimes called transmutation, and comes
the nearest possible to creation of material things. The chemist's
laboratory exists for making such new combinations, and many of the arts
produce materials, like steel, which would not exist without such
combination. But many have seen in the art of agriculture a most prominent
illustration of transmuting coarser elements into products adapted to
human wants for food, shelter and adornment. All such work, however, is
done by bringing objects and forces into such contact that chemical or
vital changes will take place while we wait.

_Production extended._--In all these three directions, or in any
combination of them, transporting, transforming and transmuting materials,
men seek the production of a supply for meeting anticipated wants, and so
contribute directly or indirectly to welfare. No one way of producing what
men need, where they need it, and when they need it, has any superior
claim to the name production. All are making the material yield up welfare
to the one who needs it, and produce wealth just so far as their services
are necessary in bringing the welfare. If ever any step in the process
becomes useless, it ceases to be productive of wealth and becomes waste.
The inventive powers of mankind are always at work to shorten the
processes and hasten the advantages of production. Men study the minutest
workings of nature to find the conditions under which she does her part of
the work. The application of such minute knowledge is a chief part of
every art. This is also the object of science; for, as Guizot says, "It
only began to have a well defined existence when it confined itself to
seeking the 'how' rather than the 'why' of nature's workings." This
purpose sustains in the United States more than fifty agricultural
experiment stations, united in a great organization, to find how the
natural forces used by farmers do their work.

This prophecy of a noted economist is warranted: "Probably the greatest
economic revolution which the youth of today may in his old age behold,
will be found in this all-important branch of our industries." When we
know how nature works, we can adjust our little motions in time and place
to promote that work; we shall