On fruit farms, rotations are not .so practicable as on grain 

 farms ; but the fields which are not in fruit can often be worked 

 in rotation to great advantage. The general tendency of fruit- 

 farmers is to keep too little stock. If stock cannot be kept, the 

 humus can be maintained by catch-crops and cover-crops. 



7. The fertility of the land is its power to produce crops. It is 

 determined by three things : the texture of the soil, its richness in 

 plant food, and its available tnoisture. — The texture of the soil is 

 its physical condition, — as to whether it is mellow, loose, leachy, 

 clodd}', hard, and the like. A rock or a board will not raise 

 corn, and yet it may contain an abundance of plant-food. The 

 plant cannot get a foothold ; and it would do no good to apply 

 fertilizers. Spreading potash on a lump of clay is not farming : 

 it is the wasting of potash. A cow will not appreciate the fan- 

 ciest ration if she is uncomfortable ; neither will a plant. It is 

 only on land which is in good tilth that fertilizers pay. The 

 better the farming, the more it will pay, as a rule, to buy plant- 

 food ; but poor farmers cannot make it pay. 



8. Nature secures good texture in soil by growing plarits in it. — 

 Roots make the soil finer, and plants supply it with humus. 

 Plants break down the soil b}- sending their roots into the 

 crevices of the particles, and the root acids dissolve some of it. 

 Observe Nature working at this problem First the ' ' moss ' ' or 

 lichen attacks the rock ; the weather cracks it and wears it away ; 

 a little soil is gathered here and there in the hollows ; a fern or 

 some other lowly plant gains a foothold ; year by year, and cen- 

 tury by century, the pocket of soil grows deeper and larger ; 

 and fi.nally, the rock is worn away and crumbled, and is read}^ to 

 support potatoes and smart-weed. Or, the rock may be hard and 

 bare, and you cannot see any such process going on. Yet, even 

 then, every rain washes something away from it, and the soil 

 beneath it is constantly receiving additions. Some soils may be 

 said to be completed : the rock is all broken down and fined. 

 Other soils are still in process of manufacture : they are full of 

 stones and pebbles which are slowly disintegrating and adding 

 their substance to the soil. Did you ever see a " rotten stone ?" 



The longer plants are grown on au}^ soil, and returned to it, 

 the richer the soil becomes. But Nature has centuries at her 



