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Streeter, John Williams

"The Fat of the Land The Story of an American Farm"

I have not been able to discover
any marked advantage from its use; the reason being that my soil was so
rich in humus and added manures that the colonies of bacteria on the
seeds were quite sufficient to infect the whole mass. Under less
favorable conditions, artificial inoculation is of great advantage.
Wonderful are the secrets of nature. The infinitely small things seem to
work for us and the infinitely large ones appear suited to our use; and
yet, perhaps, this is all "seeming" and "appearing." We may ourselves be
simply more advanced bacteria, working blindly toward the solution of an
infinite problem in which we are concerned only as means to an end.
"Why should the spirit of mortal be proud," until it has settled its
relative position with both Sirius and the micro-organisms, or has
estimated its stature by view-points from the bacterial world and from
the constellation of Lyra. Until we have been able to compare opinions
from these extremes, if indeed they be extremes, we cannot expect to
make a correct estimate of our value in the economy of the universe.


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