He sat on the front bench, and I soon decided that he was not one 

 of those who had come into the hall just to get warm. I tried to 

 draw him out and soon Iiad him asking questions. At the close of 

 the meeting I accepted his invitation to spend the night with him. 

 I took note that others addressed him as Peter, and I called him 

 Peter also. When he drove up to the store for me in a two-seated 

 democrat, a woman sat on the back seat. No introduction being 

 given, I inquired if she was Mrs. Peter and she informed me that 

 she was. What could these people know about scientific farming ? 



But this was tlie beginning of a cordial and what has been to me, 

 a very profitable acquaintance. To this day I address them as Mr. 

 and Mrs. Peter and the two children as Repeaters. 



During that afternoon I had done most of the talking ; but after 

 sup])er, Peter began to talk, having confidence from being beneath 

 his own roof. Then it was that lie told me his experience in restor- 

 ing the fertility of " worn-out " soils. I found that Peter was wise 

 in the ways of the farm, and I gladly became the listener. Follow- 

 ing is substantially what Peter said : 



" Before I began thinking nmch about plant-food 1 had a vague 

 idea that it lay in the soil like salt or sugar, to be dissolved by water 

 and sucked up by the roots of plants ; I thought that when it was 

 all dissolved the soil was exhausted ; and that if I wished to raise 

 another crop I should be obliged to cart on to the soil whatever 

 plant-food ray crop might require. When I was asked why mullein 

 and rag weed will grow where our common farm crops cannot, I 

 explained it by the theory that weeds use different kinds of plant- 

 food than farm crops. 



" It was a great revelation to me when a reading lesson showed 

 that even ' worn-out ' soils may have enough plant-food to grow 

 many crops if it can only be put in such form that plants can use 

 it ; also that all plants require about the same kinds of food although 

 varying a little in the proportions. The idea that plants differ in 

 their ability to digest or use food set me to thinking. The illustra- 

 tion which it gave, that a goat will thrive where a Jersey cow will 

 fare hard, explained a great deal to me and led me to see that weeds 

 are the goats of plant life, since they will thrive where many other 



plants cannot. 



573 



