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The Cornell Reading-Courses 



There are, of course, other conditions that modify these differences, but 

 the soil is one of the greatest natural resources of any people and largely 

 determines its manner of life. It is greater than the mines of all the metals 

 and fuel, the quarries of stone, the forests of timber, and the streams 

 with their latent power and stock of food animals. 



The soil, like almost every other natural resource, may be expended 

 and wasted, and its usefulness, if not destroyed, may be brought to an 

 exceedingly ineffective condition by careless and ignorant use. 



Fig. 2. — Accumulations of snow and tee in mountainous regions or regions of high latitude 

 slide down the slope as shown in the above picture of an Alaskan glacier. This has 

 been a very important means of soil formation, having at one time covered all of New 

 York 



On the other hand, so susceptible of re-creation is the soil that under 

 careful and wise handling it is able to maintain its productiveness with 

 scarcely a trace of diminution for decade after decade and century after 

 century. Such has been the history of the soils of many sections of Europe 

 and of the other parts of the world. This long-continued productivity 

 has not always been attained as a result of thorough scientific knowledge, 

 but has rather been the outgrowth of empirical practice by which per- 

 manently efficient customs in tillage have been developed. 

 I Nevertheless, probably every one will agree that a more permanently 

 effective system of husbandry may be developed as a result of accurate 



