Central Basin of Tennessee or the famous Blue Grass Region of
Kentucky and find land that is still extremely productive and more
valuable than ever, even after a hundred years of cultivation, and
buy land containing from three thousand to fifteen thousand pounds
of phosphorus per acre."

"I know both of those sections very well," said Mr. West. "But
doesn't it seem strange that the scientists at Washington would
teach as they do? Why doesn't the plant food accumulate in the
surface soil of those barrens? Surely they have been lying there
long enough, with no crops whatever removed, so that they ought to
have become very rich. I wish I had known about their phosphorus
content so I could have told Professor Barstow. He was quite carried
away with the Washington theory."

"You ought not for a moment call it the 'Washington' theory," said
Percy; "and neither is it promulgated by scientists, but rather by
two or three theorists who are upheld by our greatest living
optimist. Science, Sir, is a word to be spoken of always with the
greatest respect. Of course you know its meaning?"

"Yes, I know it comes from the Latin _scire, _to know."

"Then _science _means _knowledge; _it does not mean theory or
hypothesis, but absolute and positive knowledge. Is there any
uncertainty as to the instant when the next eclipse will appear? No,
none whatever. Science means knowledge, and men are scientists only
so far as they have absolute knowledge, and to that extent every
farmer is a scientist.