1 10 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



Again, in irrigated districts, a large part of the year that land lies 

 dry in the hot sunshine, and we know it is true that the irrigated lands 

 in comparatively fertile soil seem to produce much heavier crops than the 

 non-irrigated lands. 



Now then, the stories of the soil are simple, hut we have passed 

 over them through all these ages. Ages ago a little story began telling 

 itself under the lid of a tea kettle, but no one heard until Watt dis 

 covered the power of the steam that has revolutionized the industries 

 of the world. 



There is, however, another story that yet remains unsolved. It is 

 with us with our first heart-beat and will be with us until the last spark 

 of life — that something that puts the brown into the stem and the green 

 into the leaf, that something that out of the air, the earth and the water 

 builds up the blood that builds the bone and muscle, and the brain that 

 iniles the world, that mysterious something that men call life. While 

 it is with us always and will be, the mystery is yet unsolved. There 

 are some little stories, however, about the farm that are as fascinating 

 as any other story. When we see a man passing along the street wear- 

 ing a faded coat of blue, and we see that one sleeve contains no arm, 

 we would like to ask him how it happened. When we go into the great 

 penal institutions of the country where are people from all walks of 

 life, the visit loses much of its interest because we cannot get the story 

 of the inmates who are there. So it is that if we could recognize the 

 fact that there is a story told by the soil to the eye that sees, a story 

 told by the trees to the eye that sees, a story told by the plant to the 

 trained eye, they become fascinating to the investigator. What story 

 would be suggested to you provided you were passing along the road 

 about the middle of October and on one side you find the trees are still 

 loaded with green leaves, on the other side the leaves have disappeared. 

 I wonder to how many farm people it tells the story of what that man 

 has been growing in that orchard. To the one that knows, the story is 

 told just as plainly as if it were on the printed page — which of these 

 orchards would be likely to produce the most and the best fruit. It 

 tells the story to the man that knows. We are sometimes asked whether 

 the University will make chemical analyses of various soils. It takes 

 a good deal of time and expense, but the trained eye, when it sees a grow- 

 ing crop and sees the crop harvested, knows more what the soil needs 

 than is possible for the chemist to tell. The trained eye tells of the 

 available fertility in the soil, while the chemist could not determine its 

 availability, as local conditions, such as heat, moisture, etc., must be 

 considered. 



