112 MY SUMMER IN A GARDEN. 



and then go into a course of experiments to find 

 what it needs. It needs analyzing, that, I am 

 clear about: everything needs that. You had 

 better have the soil analyzed before you buy : if 

 there is " pusley " in it, let it alone. See if it is 

 a soil that requires much hoeing, and how fine it 

 will get if there is no rain for two months. But 

 when you come to fertilizing, if I understand the 

 agricultural authorities, you open a pit that will 

 ultimately swallow you up, farm and all. It 

 is the great subject of modern times, how to 

 fertilize without ruinous expense ; how, in short, 

 not to starve the earth to death while we get our 

 living out of it. Practically, the business is 

 hardly to the taste of a person of a poetic turn 

 of mind. The details of fertilizing are not 

 agreeable. Michael Angelo, who tried every 

 art, and nearly every trade, never gave his mind 

 to fertilizing. It is much pleasanter and easier 

 to fertilize with a pen, as the agricultural writers 



