people died of starvation within nine months.  The average wage of the laboring man in India, according to the Governmental statistics, is fifty cents a month, and in famine years the price of wheat has risen to as high as $3.60 a bushel.  This writer states that the most recent of all famines; namely, that prevailing in most parts of India from 1897 to 1900, was severer than the famine of 1874 to 1878.  No, Sir, I am not sure that I understand just what God’s intentions are concerning the corn belt, but it is recorded that the Lord helps him who helps himself, and that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow.  If God made the common soil in America with a limited amount of phosphorus in it, He also stored great deposits of natural rock phosphate in the mines of several States, and perhaps intended that man should earn his bread by grinding that rock and applying it to the soil.  Possibly the Almighty intended—­”

“Now, I’m very sorry, Mr. Johnston, but I have an engagement which I must keep, and you’ll have to excuse me just now.  I’m mighty glad to have met you and I’d like to talk with you for an hour more along this line; but you take my advice and stick to the corn belt land.  Above all, don’t begin to use phosphates or any sort of commercial fertilizer; they’ll ruin any land in a few years; that’s my opinion.  But then, every man has a right to his own opinion. and perhaps you have a different notion.  Eh?”

“I think no man has a right to an opinion which is contrary to fact,” Percy replied.  “This whole question is one of facts and not of opinions.  One fact is worth more than a wagonload of incorrect opinions.  But I must not detain you longer.  I am very glad to have met you here.  In large measure the statesmen of America must bear the responsibility for the future condition of agriculture and the other great industries of the United States, all of which depend upon agriculture for their support and prosperity.  Good bye.”

“I’ll agree with you there all right; the farmer feeds them all.  Good bye.”

CHAPTER XXV

A LESSON ON TOBACCO

Percy found Leonardtown almost in the center of St. Mary county, situated on Breton bay, an arm of the lower Potomac.

From the data recorded on the back of his map of Maryland, Percy noted that a population of four hundred and fifty-four found support in this old county seat, according to the census of I 900.  After spending the day in the country, he found himself wondering how even that number of people could be supported, and then remembered that there is one industry of some importance in the United States which exists independent of agriculture, an industry which preceded agriculture, and which evidently has also succeeded agriculture to a very considerable extent in some places; namely, fishing.

“Clams, oysters and fish, and in this order,” he said to himself, “apparently constitute the means of support for some of these people.”