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If mm \ mm Jcienoe Busy With Problem of Future Food —— . ' * 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. i 1 h * • 'l/' I '^l < T ' 4 vL ZMk fr'iCH dZL4Z>Z£JP. sz&sv&Zz v 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 L -40'- 0" H p 65 '_0" * — Smn : I 1 , , n'xifc' s J fSrnD'M b— h DED kM. | ' 2 ly I 0R i Hall 1 ill —J_fc.-=--= v .----jsjdining^ f<miiii| f r^ 1 "^ 1 ' 1 1 iviNr Pm II DDrJI pv SEDRM. . | | psg—tpiT^ 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.