390 ANNUAL REPORT 



tions, climbing the several steps of pi-ogress through nature's chemi. 

 cal crucibles, ere they can be nutritiously appropriated by the higher 

 organisms of our culture. Fitness to selection after nature by our 

 arts applied has passed the primaries through the necessary evolutional 

 processes. This is the order of assimilation and growth. Here is 

 where our chemistry fails us; why its analysis of our soils proves 

 little or nothing in vital economy. Nature mixed her waters and 

 atmospheres, bone and develops her children in ways that confound 

 all our boasted wisdom. Why is lime from the bones of animals far 

 better fitted for agricultural purposes than lime direct from the rock? 

 Why is scientific butter from the cream of the cow ninety-nine per 

 cent better than oleomargarine from the chemist's greasy vat? Why 

 are ashes from hard woods better than ashes from anthracite coal that 

 was a coarse-grained forest about a million or more years ago? Why 

 must the delicate rose have a peculiarly fine soil to warrant a bloom- 

 ing that enchants the very air? Ask the divinity in nature. The 

 answer ever returns that success comes by adapting the laws and 

 forces of nature to the instinctive needs of all living dependencies. 

 For plants to grow well and harvest bountifully, for horses to be 

 healthful and spirited, for cows to give rich milk, for any domestic 

 animal to thrive on our lands with profit, for the angels of the house- 

 hold to be developd strong in body and mind, they all must be pro- 

 tected and have food of adaptable quality. 



The decayed remains of trees generate acids far more potent than 

 those of grasses that largely form the humus of unforested soil. As a 

 test, apply the ashes of wood and the ashes of straw or hay to your 

 crops. The difference is very marked. The ashes of different species 

 and varieties are equally marked. To make substantial soap, the 

 housewife wants the ashes of hard wood; soft wood does not produce 

 the requisite strength and quality of potash. What will make good 

 soap will make good crops. Where hard woods grow, and their decay 

 becomes a cardinal constituent of the soil, is considered the most 

 promising place for fruit plants. Are we of the prairie lands pre- 

 pared for the hard woods? Our soil may not yet be fitted The nut- 

 bearing trees, such as the hickory, the walnut, the butternut, the 

 white oak, are waiting their turn for trial. Meanwhile we must pave 

 the way with the uative trees of the new Northwest, such as the box 

 elder, the ash, the cottonwood, the basswood, the willow, the elm, the 

 pine, the balsam, the spruce. 



As the digestive organs of the body develop food into blood, thence 

 nerve and brain, so do the roots of the trees sip up the decomposing 



