i 9 4 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



and nitrogen for the most part, with hydrogen com- 

 posing a good share of the liquid part or sap. 



The elements of the soil that are not in the air 

 are deep down under the surface of the soil, or in- 

 corporated in the rocks. The most important are 

 potash and phosphorus. You get some potash from 

 ashes, weed waste, soap suds, and there are few soils 

 that in their natural state are entirely deficient in 

 this element. The timber soils of our corn belt con- 

 tain about two thousand pounds of phosphorus per 

 acre. Raising crops that use up these elements 

 steadily lessens the possibility of growing any crops 

 at all. We have got to find them in the soil; if we 

 use them up, we have got to replace them. 



Agriculture should be renamed agriculture, be- 

 cause we are really taking from the air the larger 

 part of our annual crops. What we must know is 

 how to do this most readily. Our fathers knew that 

 they must use manure and they knew that they must 

 rotate crops. They knew also that living plants fed 

 on decaying plants, this having first served as food 

 for animals. 



They did not know, however, and it was only 

 recently discovered, that there was one class of plants 

 that could take plant food directly from the air, using 

 it at once for plant growth and then transferring it 

 to the soil. It was not many years ago that we first 

 found out that all leguminous plants, like clover, 

 alfalfa, beans, peas, and in the South crimson clover, 

 cow peas, velvet beans, and beggar weed had been 



