No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 185 



What I know is based chiefly on practical experience, and much 

 of it was learned through mistakes ; but our scientific men sometimes 

 make mistakes as well as other men — and I say this with all due re- 

 spect to scientific men — so perhaps you will not think the less of me 

 for this, even though I am not a scientific man. 



The subject of "How Nature Makes Soil" goes away back to the 

 beginning of time, when the world came into being as a mere molten 

 mass, down to the present time, and all this time Nature has been 

 making soil, on this old planet of ours. We get the idea that the 

 making of soil is a thing of the past — of past epochs; I am fully con- 

 vinced in my own mind that soil-making is going on as rapidly today 

 as it was in any of the great geological epochs of the past, and it 

 is of great importance that we assist Nature in her work, and that 

 is where a whole lot of our agricultural work, and a whole lot of our 

 farming, has failed, because it is not in harmony with Nature's 

 method, and so long as it is not in harmony with Nature's method, it 

 will accomplish nothing. 



How much of this land has been farmed for five hundred years? 

 Out in the western part of the State, it has not been farmed for two 

 hundred years. Up in Crawford county we have land that has been 

 farmed for thirty years, and is not producing what it should; it 

 produces plantain and other weeds. Why? Because the farmers 

 have not been in harmony with Nature, and with Nature's God. 

 When I took up the question of farming some years ago, and put 

 everything I had on earth in that land, I soon found that the land 

 did not produce what I had counted on, and what I had to have to 

 pay for it. I interviewed my neighbors and they informed me that 

 my land produced as much as any other land there. So I con- 

 cluded that if I wanted to keep out of the hands of the sheriff I 

 must do something different from what my neighbors were doing, 

 and if you want to know how I succeeded, I invite you, all of you, 

 or any of you, to come to my home at any time and inspect my books; 

 they are always open to inspection. 



Now, then, in order to help Nature make soil, there are three 

 things we must do. What are these three things? The first is drain 

 the land. Up there in Crawford county, on the Volutia soils, we 

 need to drain. Out in Western Pennsylvania there is good land to 

 be had for |50 an acre; in Northern Illinois they are demanding from 

 |350 to $400 an acre for the same type of soil. Why? Because 

 they have made farming a business proposition out there, and have 

 gone to work to help Nature make the soil. They have drained it, 

 and done their part in other ways. If I were to take that land in 

 Western Pennsylvania at |50 and spend |25 in draining it, and 

 another |25 in otherwise improving it, it can be made to produce 

 more per acre than the |350 an acre land in Northern Illinois. As 

 our friend Seeds says, it depends upon the man. 



After you drain your land, the next thing is to give it a supply of 

 lime to sweeten it. The reason we have been successful with our 

 land is we drained it, and we limed it. Many a man today is spend- 

 ing money buying commercial fertilizer, and not getting results. 

 Why? Because his land is in no condition to get the plant food. 



The whole thing hinges upon the economy of the thing. A man 

 can grow wonderful crops, and if he is not economical, he will fail 

 with it. The first problem that was brought to my attention was 



