74 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



unchanged ; and yet the wheat, corn, rye, and other 

 plants dwindled away to poor, starved things produ- 

 cing nothing. If it is true, as we might think from the 

 behavior of our farmers, that when a soil refuses to 

 give good crops we must find more virgin soil in 

 another place, then we must be pretty near the end of 

 the world. There is no virgin soil in Europe or Asia, 

 and we have not much left in this country. There 

 may be some in Africa or Australia, or perhaps in South 

 America. Must we move to these places when we 

 come to the end of all our new land ? If plants, like 

 the man with the fourteen dishes, are disappointed if 

 one be gone from their table, what are we to do? 

 We look about, and find people have been living in 

 Europe for many hundreds of years ; in fact, a very 

 long time before this great piece of virgin soil we call 

 America was discovered. Clearly, they did not starve, 

 neither did they follow the plan of our foolish farmers, 

 and go off to find new virgin soil, every time a field 

 refused to give good crops. This plan of going out 

 West for new land was all very well while this country 

 was new : it was cheaper, and there was plenty of 

 room. Now we must do something else, for we are 

 rapidly coming to the end of our new soils. We must 

 look at the European farmer, the Frenchman, the Eng- 

 lishman, and German. What did he do with his soils ? 

 He repaired them. He learned, in some rude way, 

 that something was wrong. He found the plants did 

 not grow in certain soils, and he worked over the soils 

 till he made them as good as new. He found some 



