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A Sandv Soil. 



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to the ground. Every tree in the forest now and then dropped twigs and 

 broken branches. When a big tree died and decayed, it also fell to the 

 ground, and lay stretched with its arms spreading wide. Slowly but 

 surely all these things — leaves, twigs and trees, — rotted and passed back 

 into the form of mother Earth. And thus the mold, which you find so 

 common in forests, was made. 



It is this vegetable matter, or humus, that makes soils dark. It is the 

 most valuable and enriching part of the soil, and so nearly all the best soils 

 are dark. The 

 virgin soil of 

 Canada, that is, 

 the soil before it 

 was cultivated or 

 cropped, wore a 

 thick coat of rich 

 brown mold over 

 the sand grains 

 below. Through 

 many years of 

 plowing and cul- 

 tivating, these 

 two parts — the 

 humus and the 

 rock — have 

 come mixed 

 gether, just 

 you found in 

 earth you 

 amined. Wood 

 andleaves are not 

 the only sources 

 ofhumus. Straw, 

 roots, grass, and 

 clover, if left on 

 the land, will 

 finally become 

 humus. 



The Soil and 

 THE Rain. It was 

 a dry hot sum- 

 mer day. In the 

 fields, the corn 



and clover leaves hung limp and lifeless. In the gardens, the flowers 

 bent their heads, and had hardly strength enough to put forth their buds. 

 There had been no rain for many days, and the plants had had very 

 little to drink but the dew that gathered on their leaves at night. So 

 they were all very thirsty. 



That night the rain fell in a long, heavy shower, upon the fields and 

 gardens. On the steep hillsides it fell, and ran down in torrents to the 



be- 



to- 



as 



the 



ex- 



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A Clav Soil. 







A first-class Garden Soil. 



Y\%. 5. Showing- soils, each separated into fine, medium, and coarse grains. 



