liMPROVEMENT OP SOILS. 271 



that plants obtain food in the soil by fibrous roots with mouths too 

 small to be seen without microscopic vision, we reason that it is 

 by some subtle faculty which we recognize as a vital principle. I 

 will suggest that it consists in a capillary texture of the soil by 

 which small particles of manurial matter are'brought in contact 

 with the surface to which they adhere. Leachy soils have a text- 

 ure admitting of the circulating elements passing through them so 

 rapidly as to wash away manurial matter from attaching surfaces. 

 It is a natural tendency of soil to become too porous, small veins 

 will form b}"- water leaching through them and grow larger by use 

 till they require breaking up to pulverize and refine their texture 

 so that water will filter slowly through them, and each particle of 

 soil ever so small has a surface to which still smaller particles of 

 matter will cohere if brought in contact, hence the importance of 

 occasionally ploughing the soil to refine the texture of that too 

 porous, or to make a tenacious soil permeable." 



Our clay soils are richer than most others in the materials of 

 which plants are made, but in a good degree locked up from use 

 by their teiiacity, and need only thorough pulverizing and mellow- 

 ing to become very productive. Sufficient importance is not gen- 

 erally attached to thorough pulverizing and mixing of the various 

 ingredients of the soil. However rich these may be in plant food, 

 vegetation will starve if this food is not found in suitable form to 

 come in contact with the delicate root fibres which act as mouths 

 of the plants, and its availability will depend greatly upon the 

 atmosphere and the chemical changes which are facilitated by 

 loosening and mixing the soil. If there is any one element of 

 plant growth of more importance than another, it is water. Crops 

 usually fail or succeed in proportion as they are supplied with 

 water. And this is somewhat within the control of the cultivator, 

 by draining and pulverizing of the soil. Drains remove useless 

 water, and the loosening of the subsoil allows the egress of the 

 water through all its pores, which are then filled by air. If by 

 means of the plow, cultivator or hoe, we keep the surface fine, we 

 have it continually watered by the atmosphere, which contains 

 more or less moisture all the time ; and as the air circulates 

 through the fine surface it is continually robbed of its moisture, 

 which is taken up by the little rootlets ; therefore by simply keep- 

 ing the surface loose by cultivation, we may, to a considerable 

 degree, protect our crops in case of drouth. Indeed, if the soil 



