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Jcienoe Busy With
Problem of Future
Food
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By JOHN DICKINSON SHERMAN
OL. WILLIAM BOYCB
Jrjg THOMPSON hus already
ala spent several of his
VV7 -V A millions and will sjiend
V-: /) several more on the
aL Thompson Institute of
I‘lnnl Itesenrch near his
home in Yonkers, N. Y.,
1 with the purpose that
I man shall not perish
i from the fuce of the
I * earth from hick of food.
( Colonel Thompson and
the scientists lie lias associated with
the Institute say that by IDSO the
people of the United Stales will have
to watch their steps lest the next gen
erations no hungry. They figure that
In twenty live years the population of
the country and the fowl capacity of
the land —as now farm-worked —will
tie equal.
In the next century these experts
visualize the extinction of fhe human
race unless impending destruction of
plant life is averted.
This group of scientists Is not atone
In casting an anxious glance toward the
future. Tlie scientific world In gen
eral seems to he concerned about the
food supply of the future. For ex
ample, Dr. Itoss Aiken Gortner, head
of tin* biochemistry division of the
Minnesota College of Agriculture, In a
paper before the American Associa
tion for the Advancement of Science
at Its recent meeting urged that
science endeavor to solve a world
wide food shortage problem that
{threatened not very far in the future.
JRe sahl Hint It Cannot be more than
t few generations before the world
will have more mouths than it can
leed, unless something Is done.
Not content with the practical ad
vance already made ly science, the
■clentlsts with large vision have been
looking a long way ahead into the
future. J. B. S. Uuldlne of Cambridge,
Eng., In looking ahead to 2123 sees
the world breeding a strain or nitro
gen-tixing bacteria which will serve as
a powerful and universal fertiliser.
The late Charles I*. Steinmetx, the
American electrical wizard, went
farttier and predicted the breeding In
laboratories of new types of nitrogen
fixing bacteria which would in thein
achrcs be highly palatable and nutri
tious protein and the staple food of
the human race.
The scientists of the Carnegie
Foundation go still farther. They are
working in laboratories at Tucson and
Carmel on the study of chemical
processes by which plants take carbon
from the air. They hope science wilt
learn how to take food directly from
the air without the aid of bacteria,
higher plants or animals.
Almost without exception the seien
tists concerned about the food of the
future assume that the world will be
so densely populated that every inch
will be needed for agriculture and that
there will l>e no room for food ani
mals. Steinmetx suggested that sev
eral surfaces be given the earth. He
Stunned underground protein farms.
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one under the other, lighted by arti
ficial light, lie speculated on the
evolution of swift-growing crops of
grasses and plants which should sup
ply fuel, textile materials and paper.
Haldine foresees the biologist com
bining strains of lichen into a moss
like living structure which will push
out over (lie deserts of the world,
binding the sand and paving the way
for crops.
Colonel Thompson purposes to try
out the discoveries that science has
already made and to test as far as
possible tiie visions of the dreamers.
Every possible device for making
healthier plants, faster-growing plants
and bigger crops will be used. He
hopes that his ami other laboratories
will make it possible for 500,000,000
Americans to live In comfort.
Colonel Thompson, listed ns a bank
er hi “Who’s Who,” Is a man Of many
activities. He was born at Virginia
City, Mont., in 1800, and was educated
at Phillip’s Exeter academy and
Columbia University School of Mines.
lie was a director of the Federal
Iteserve bank of New York from Its
organization until December of 1919.
He is a director of a big life insur
ance company. He was a Republican
presidential elector in 1912 and a dele
gate to the national conventions of
1910 aud 1920. lie is president of tlie
Roosevelt Memorial association, lie
was head of the American Red Cross
mission to Russia in 1917 He was
envoy of the United States to the first
centennial of the proclamation of 'he
independence of Peru In 1921. He was
a member of the advisory committee to
the American delegation in tlie confer
ence on the limitation of armament in
1921.
Colonel Thompson’s large fortune
was made In copper. In a way, Nature
gave him Ids wealth. He says It is
quite proper, therefore, that some of
his millions should be returned to
Nature.
Something like 83,000,000 lias al
ready been expended on the institute.
At least as much more will be spent.
Dr. William Crocker, head of the
Thompson institute, was formerly pro
fessor of plant physiology at the Uni
versity of Chicago. He says:
“In twenty-five years the United
States’ population will equal the ca
pacity of Its land, as now farm
worked, to produce its dally food. We
shall have 140,000,000 souls to feed in
1950 and 140,000,000 daily rations to
feed them with.”
Thereafter, Dr. Crocker’s prediction
continued, we shall enter a period of
constant famine peril. Tlie population
will go Inevitably to 200.000,000—with
00,000,000 chairs lacking at the nation
al dinner table.
It will ld too tate then to regret the
follies that wasted and the rusts that
THE OANIELBVILLE MONITOR, PANIEL6VILLE, SEOROIA.
ate tlie plant life ot 1923. Ai that mo
ment Mother Earth will make a sum
mary solution of the difficulty —not by
taxing her insulted rations, hut by the
simple device of killing off G0.000.U00
humans.
But it is not too late now. Twenty
five years of the labors which have
started in the incomplete first structure
of the Thompson institute will, if
properly encouraged, humor Mother
Nature into another extension of her
sufferance of human kind.
The scientists grouped by Doctor
Crocker under the Thompson research
administration are doing marvels in
the diagnosis and treatment of plant
disease.
Doctor Crocker paused before a row
of six glass cases containing his most
hopeless diseased patients.
“The rest of tlie building is far from
complete, hut we have our isolation
ward in full operation,” he said.
Plants, he explained, have as many
different and serious ailments as hu
man beings. They are different,
though, in that their caretakers—the
farmer, the gardener—have practical
ly no knowledge at all of the nature
of their ailments.
Furthermore, the plant is unequipped
to battle disease, for one very curious
reason which Doctor Crocker ex
pounded.
“The animal lias a blood circula
tion which admirably seconds medical
care. A doctor of liumans can intro
duce a drug into the arm and know
that in a few seconds It will be trans
ported in the blood stream to the sick
spot. Plants have a rudimentary cir
culation, sluggish and full of the no
thoroughfares which block tlie flow of
saps.”
Because plants are almost totally
unresponsive to treatment after they
have contracted disease, tlie funda
mental philosophy of plant physiology
is to ward off disease.
One single discovery In the Thomp
son institute may be worth many
times the millions he is spending. Sen
sational crop predictions are justified
by the past. Canada has increased the
value of its wheat crop $15,000,000 to
$20,000,000 because of the work of
Dr. William Sanders and his two sons
In combining the red Fife wheat with
a strain which increased its resistance
to frost. It is said artificial light plays
strange antics with plants. Exhaustive
tests will be made along this line. The
atmosphere of the carboniferous era,
in which grew ferns taller than oaks
that gave us coal, will be reproduced.
I’lants will be irrigated with carbon
oxide.
Tfie United States Department of
j Agriculture maintains the ‘‘Office of
j Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction.**
Its scientists search the world for ma
terial. They have given American
farmers plants which yield crops worth
hundreds of millions annually. Ex
amples are Durum wheat. $50,000,(MX);
I Japanese rices, $21,000,000; Egyptian
J cotton, $20,000,000; sudnn grass. $lO,-
j 000,000.
They also search for hardy and dis
| ease-resistant strains of familiar
plants.
The great peril uf man Is the in
sects. whidt are always threatening to
eat up the food of the world. So in
i sect is being set on insect —every In
j sect pest seems to have its insect foe,
j according to nature’s way of maintain
j big the balance.
Colonial Bungalow Meant
for Two-Tenant Occupancy
' i
By WILLIAM A. RADFORD
Atr. William A. Radford will answer
questions and give advice FREE OF
COST on all subjects pertaining to th.
subject of building, for the readers of
this paper. On account of his wide
experience as Editor, Author and
Manufacturer, he is, without doubt,
the highest authority on all these sub
jects. Address all inquiries to William
A. Radford, No. 1527 Prairie avenue,
Chicago, 111., and only inclose two-cent
stamp for reply.
Exteriorly there is nothing about
this handsome colonial bungalow to in
dicate that it is designed for two-ten
ant occupancy. Yet it has five rooms
on each side, reached from the one
entrance vestibule, and merits atten
tion as offering a means whereby res
idence section restrictions, such as
against fia£-buildings, etc., may be got
around and yet help the locality along
at the same time. For there is no
denying the fact that it is a very at
tractive place, indeed.
The wide colonial doorway, with
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0R i Hall 1
ill —J_fc.-=--= v .----jsjdining^ f<miiii| f r^ 1 "^ 1
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side lights, makes an ample vestibule
possible. From this vestibule open off
the two doors leading into each five
room apartment, consisting of living
room, dining room, kitchen, two bed
rooms and bath. The kitchen has a
rear entrance, and, worth noting, is
how tlie bedrooms are so placed as to
assure maximum privacy to tlie occu
pants.
The exterior is stucco, with red lines
of trim from the use of brick, as is
visible in tlie chimney, portion. With
a house like this it is not wise to go
into the field of colored stucco too ex
tensively ; this place depends for its
appeal upon simplicity. Therefore the
stucco is best left white, or tinted a
gray or light cream, not blue or warm
red or pink, such as is the vogue with
•esldenees of the Spanish type In the
warmer sections of the country.
The landscaping is simple, but the
more formal the better, insofar as
shrubbery is concerned. But one
could brighten up the exterior of this
bungalow with hollyhocks and the
bright old-fashioned flowers, with ex
cellent results. Tiie quaint rounded
windows ought to have consideration,
too. -s a decorative feature, and not
ho hidden behind square awnings in
lie summer time; awnings should be
of the round-top style to match. A lit
tle attention to the small detail of
window curtains will heip this place
to keep its home character intact, such
as having the draw shades of the same
kind for both tenants. This is some
thing one would naturally expect the
landlord to see to.
Following the keynote of the door
way, one might expect on interior
where the wood trim was finished in
the popular white or cream enamel so
fitting with colonial interiors. And the
furniture would naturally fall into
line, the choice lying with the less
massive styles, such a3 the colonial
period left us as a legacy, the simplicity
of modified Ileppelwhite, Sheraton,
Chippendale and Windsor chairs.
The wall coverings offer a wide lat
itude of choice. Of course, one of
the tenants of this place may be the
owner, and the renting tenant may
wish something altogether different in
the wall treatment of the apartment
Floor Plan.
lie rents. It is safe t<>_ use plain. neU '
tral tinted papers or wall finishes tor
the living room, paint for the kitchen,
or some of the sanitary oilcloth " ai
hangings and a flowered pattern "t
wall paper or simple paint or k'.-o
mine tint for thfe bedrooms.
There is no denying the cheerfulness
of the flowered wall paper, pattern in
the bedroom, and yet many feel ■
can rest more easily In a room tini-.’
in quiet tones. It all resolves Into a
matter of taste; fashions in such t- 1 - 1
vary little. The main ktea is t >■’
cure the services of a decoratm "
has good taste and knows how t>
his patrons the benefit of ids * u
tions, even if it means he scll> '
expensive material and makes a
less profit.
The Ancient and Modern Year
The Athenians began their >' efl r
June, and the Macedonians in
tember. Tiie Romans first hu •
new year in March, but later o -
it to January. The Persian new .'
is August 11, while the ancient
cans began it on February 23, an .
Mohammedans began it in -luly
Clilnese begin their year
January or early in February.