208 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



limbs, and they breathe just as the limbs breathe. 

 They obtain oxygen from the air and throw off car- 

 bon gases. The soil must be so prepared and so kept 

 during the growing season that the roots can have 

 a sufficient supply of this gas or air. This means 

 that the soil on which we walk is not by any means 

 all of it made of soil particles, but that much of it is 

 air. In clay soils the air spaces are small and the 

 roots are less likely to be well supplied with what 

 they need for healthy action. 



The object of plowing is to stir the soil and let the 

 air in, and almost invariably root health depends 

 upon frequent stirring of the soil with the cultivator. 

 Drainage works in the same way, for as it lets the 

 water out, it lets the air in. A shower of rain does 

 good, not only by furnishing moisture, but by putting 

 the air in motion. At the same time a shower is 

 very liable to form a crust on the surface that pre- 

 vents the free passage of air. This must be broken 

 up with the cultivator. 



In sandy soil there may be too much air, and in 

 this case the micro-organisms that are at work on 

 the humus are as badly disturbed as from a lack of 

 aeration. At the same time fungoid formations are 

 developed that burn out the soil. So you find that 

 there is plenty of use for brains at every stage of our 

 work, even in the smallest of gardens. 



Just at this point note the relation of the work 

 which is being carried on by and for the plants and 

 human health. While the roots are taking up car- 



