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food, may serve, if located near a large city, merely to liold the 

 plants in position while the skillful gardener feeds the plants with 

 specially prepared fertilizers, and by irrigation supplies the moisture. 

 Early in the study of soils an excursion, if possible, should be 

 made into the woods. Great trees will be found and under the trees 

 will be found various shrubs and possibly weeds and grass. It will be 

 noticed that the soil is well occupied with growing plants. The sur- 

 face will be found covered with a layer several inches thick of leaves 

 and twigs. Beneath this covering the soil is dark, moist, full of 

 organic matter, loose, easily spaded except as roots or stones may 

 interfere, and the soil has every appearance of being fertile. 



Soil Conditions as Found in Many Fields. 



After examining the conditions in the forest, a study should be 

 made of the soil in some cultivated field. It will be found that in 

 the iields the soil has lost many of the marked characteristics noticed 

 in the woodlend. In walking over the fields, the soil will be found 

 to be hard and compact. The surface may be covered with gi-ow- 

 ing plants, and if the seeds which have been put into the soil by the 

 farmer have not germinated and the plants made growth, nature has 

 quickly come to the rescue and filled the soil with other plants which 

 we commonly call weeds. It is nature's plan to keep the soil cov- 

 ered with growing plants, and from nature we should learn a lesson. 

 The field soil, instead of being moist, is dry; instead of being loose 

 and friable, is hard and compact, and it appears entirely different in 

 texture from the woodland soil. The cause of the difference is not 

 hard to discover. In the woods, nature for years has been building 

 up the soil. The leaves from the trees fall to the ground and form 

 a covering which prevents washing, and these leaves decay and add 

 to tlie humus or vegetable mold of the soil. Roots are constantly 

 decaying and these furnish channels through the soil and permit of 

 air and water drainage. 



In the field, nature's lesson has been disregarded and too often 

 the whole aim seems to be to remove everything from the soil and 

 to make no returns. Consequently the organic matter or humus 

 has been used up ; the tramping of the horses' feet has closed the 



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