The Soil 21 



The clays of the different parts of the country are 

 formed from the decomposition to a great extent of the 

 old crystaUine rocks of the granite series. They have been 

 spread abroad by the floods of past ages and cover the 

 nakedness of the older rocks, and are gradually trans- 

 ported by the erosive action of the rains and frost to form 

 the foundation for the most productive soil. 



Hence we find that long before there was 

 Preparation ^ ^^^ ^^ ^.j^ ^^iq soil there had been myriads 

 of the Earth . . . , , r i . , , . 



for Man ^^ agencies preparmg the earth for his habi- 



tation. The atmosphere had been purified 

 of its excess of carbon by its being taken up by the old 

 moss trees and buried in the coal formation for his future 

 use. Even the growing lack of fertihty had been pro- 

 vided for by the accumulation of phosphatic rocks in 

 various regions, finally to come into use as man wasted 

 his inheritance by careless cultivation; for the earth on 

 man's advent was a new world growing on the old decay 

 and putting out new forms of tree and animal. Time and 

 time again has the Almighty fulfilled the words of the 

 Psalmist: "Thou takest away their breath, they die, and 

 return again to their dust." "Thou sendest forth thy 

 breath, they are made, and thou renewest the face of 

 the earth." 



Phosphorus from the animal bones of past ages is used 

 in the fertiHzing of our fields to-day, and thus they are 

 taking on a new life, and we know not how often this 

 has been done in the long ages past, for we have seen that 

 all the materials that enter into our soils to-day and grow 

 up into crops have always existed and will exist till the 

 end of all things, taking on new shapes age after age. 



