The Problem of Impovekished Lands. 103 



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

 not 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 wast- 

 ing of potash. A cow will not appreciate the fanciest 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 farming cannot 

 make it pay. 



8. Nature secures good texture in soil hy g row uuj plants in it. — 

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

 break down the soil by 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 century by century, the 

 pocket of soil grows deeper and larger ; and finally, the rock is worn 

 away and crumbled, and is ready 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 some- 

 thing 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 manu- 

 facture : they are full of stones and pebbles which are slowly disin- 

 tegrating and adding their substance to the soil. Did you ever see 

 a " rotten stone ? " 



The longer plants are grown on any soil, and returned to it, the 

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

 man has but a few short years and must work rapidly, and he can- 

 not afford to make mistakes. 



9. The texture of the soil may he improved (1) hy underdrain- 

 ing, (2) hy tilling^ (3) hy adding vegetable matter, (4) hy adding 

 certain materials, as lime, which tend to change the size of the soil 

 particles. — The reader will say that Nature does not practice tile- 

 draining. Perhaps not, but then, she has more kinds of crops to 

 grow than the farmer has, and if she cannot raise oaks on a certain 

 piece of land she can put in water-lilies. AVe have an entire lesson 

 devoted to drainage and tillage, and also one to manures and fertil- 



