34 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



photographs of ancient life can we tell how and 

 where they lived. We know they did live, that 

 every single creature, from the shellfish as big as a pin- 

 head to gigantic mastodons, has left its remains in the 

 earth to be turned to stone and to soils. The sweet 

 earth quickly melted the dead thing away, and turned 

 it into soft soil where flowers and fruits might grow. 

 Some of these remains were turned at last to stone, 

 only to be weathered away by storms and again turned 

 to soils. Even at this day, there are whole islands 

 covered deep with yellow soil left by millions of sea- 

 birds that made their homes on the rocks. We call it 

 guano, and send ships to gather it that we may use 

 this pungent yellow soil to enrich our gardens. Even 

 the earth-worms we have thought so useless and dis- 

 agreeable are soil-makers. We find in the garden-walk 

 in the morning, tiny heaps of black soil left over night 

 by some creature. Only within a few years was it 

 discovered that this is the work of the earth-worms. 

 They burrow deep in the soil in search of food, eating 

 the poor soil below, and then leaving the undigested 

 portions on the surface as rich contributions to the 

 soil. And these humble creatures have no doubt per- 

 formed this work for millions of years, and we never 

 knew it until just now. Little did they care. The 

 Creator gave them this good work to do ; and they 

 went on attending to business, quite regardless of the 

 opinion of men who wondered, ever since the world 

 began, why such creatures were made. 



So it appears that our soils are composed of these 



