70 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL, 



of soil is a very small part of an acre. As far as the 

 sand and clay and the organic parts are concerned, 

 our examination of a few ounces of soil may be fair, 

 because these things form the whole of the soil. 

 When we come to the elements, it is quite different ; 

 and instead of three parts we have seventeen parts, and 

 the proportions of each are very small. There may 

 not be in a whole acre of soil, weighing hundreds of 

 tons, more than fifty pounds of one of the elements ; 

 and thus the proportion in one pound would be so 

 small, we might not be able to find it. Moreover, the 

 work of analyzing soils is troublesome and expensive, 

 and can only be done by a chemist. Even the chem- 

 ist tells us the work is unsatisfactory, because of the 

 strange way things are mixed together in every soil. 

 In one place there may be a good deal of phosphorus, 

 and in places not twelve inches away on either side 

 not a trace of it to be found. Plainly, if he happened 

 to dig in the wrong place, he would tell us quite a 

 wrong story about the field. So, while it seems a capi- 

 tal plan to have a field examined by a chemist, it is 

 really very misleading. The chemist will tell us the 

 truth about a little handful of soil ; but the field con- 

 tains a million handfuls, and not one may be exactly 

 like another. Our best plan is to try experiments, and, 

 if we fear any single element is missing from a soil, to 

 add them all, and thus be on the safe side. 



It is all much like the man who declared he must 

 have soup, fish, meat, potatoes, beans, lettuce, pease, 

 bread, salt, pepper, vinegar, sugar, oil, and coffee for 



