IMPROVEMENT OF SOILS. 75 



of the elements were missing, and he put them back 

 in the soil ; and then the plants grew just as well as 

 ever. They found the fourteen elements in reach, and 

 were satisfied, and grew big and fat on the old, old 

 soils. 



Here is a most important matter. Soils can be 

 improved, and can be made to bear good crops year 

 after year, apparently without end. We read that 

 seedtime and harvest will not fail : this means, that 

 the time for sowing seed and the time for gathering 

 harvests will not fail. But if we fail to do our part, 

 the harvests will fail also every year. There is another 

 thing we must notice. A good soil kept in repair is 

 better than a gold-mine. The mine gives great wealth 

 for a short time, and then there is an end. The miner 

 gathers all the ore, and the mine is then only a worth- 

 less hole in the ground. The fields can, with care and 

 skill, be improved from year to year, and give the farm- 

 er food (which is wealth just as much as gold) for his 

 children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, 

 and all their children, till there shall be neither times 

 nor seasons, seed-sowing nor harvests, forever, world 

 without end. 



As there is still some virgin soil left in this country, 

 we may stop just a moment to see what must be done 

 to it to make it ready for our useful plants. Our ob- 

 servations have already shown us that plants will not 

 grow in the shade. If, therefore, there are trees grow- 

 ing in the soil, they must be removed. There are two 

 ways in which this has been done. One way is to cut 



