After luncheon, during which they ate some of the bread made from wheat grown on the premises, they went to an adjoining farm, also a wheat farm, where harvesting was in full progress. Machinery, suspended from overhead tracks, cut the wheat rapidly with circular scythes. All the wheat being of the same height, the machine cut the wheat almost directly below the heads, dropped them on a conveyor, which carried the real harvest to a central distribution point. Another machine immediately followed the cutter, grasping the stalks that were still standing, unerringly pulled out the straw hulks, roots and all. Thus the roots were entirely removed and the soil loosened, obviating plowing. Within a few hours following cutting, the last stem was out. The field was then sprayed with the liquid Termidon from overhead. Within another three hours, sowing began, also from overhead pipes.
Going to an adjoining plant, they saw a bare field with almost black soil, ready to be sowed. An attendant, at Ralph's request, pulled a switch and immediately Alice witnessed a seed rain from the overhead pipes.
"The seed," Ralph explained, "is supplied to these tubes by means of compressed air. The tubes are perforated, and when air pressure is applied, the seed, flowing through the tubes is ejected evenly—just so many seeds to a given area. Closing the openings of the pipes automatically as the seeding proceeds, means only a given quantity of seed will fall upon any given square foot of soil. This makes for scientific planting, and we raise just the exact quantity of wheat we want."
Alice watched the seed rain spellbound. Like a wall of rain it slowly receded into the distance until finally it disappeared. "How long does it take to sow this field?" she asked.
"From two to three hours, depending upon the size of the field. This particular field is about eight miles long and three miles wide. The process should be completed within about three and a half hours."
"And when will this crop be ready for the harvest?" Alice wanted to know.
"In about seventy days from now the wheat will be ready to cut."
Alice walked along thoughtfully and then inquired whether the great cost of such an undertaking would not make the growing of the foodstuffs prohibitive.
"Quite the contrary," Ralph replied. "We are now growing wheat, corn, potatoes, and many other foodstuffs, for a much lower price than our ancestors did five or six hundred years ago. You see, it is the installation of the hothouses and machinery that is costly, but these glass and steel buildings will last for centuries with proper care. The frames are made of non-rusting steel which needs no painting. The glass lasts for hundreds of years. The labor we use in planting and harvesting is a mere fraction of what was used in olden times. Thus, for sowing and harvesting this plant, eight by three miles, we require only twenty people. This is a very much smaller number than was used on a small old-fashioned farm.
"We waste nothing. We have no poor crops, and we get three or four times as much as our ancestors did."