IO2 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



be found in nearly every soil ; and, as the plants need 

 only very small portions of each, we need have no fear 

 that they will not find enough everywhere. Tillage 

 will help to supply these also ; because the elements 

 exist in many rocks, and tillage brings air and water 

 into the soil to release the elements from the sand and 

 clay. This leaves us four elements, nitrogen, phos- 

 phorus, potassium, and calcium ; and these we shall 

 also find in any fertile soil. In wild virgin soil they 

 are abundant ; and plants in such soils grow wonder- 

 fully, and produce bountiful crops. Wild plants, like 

 trees, growing in a virgin soil, shed their leaves every 

 year, and in time die, and decay upon the ground. 

 In this way they return to the soil all the elements 

 they took from it, and the soil remains fertile. When 

 we clear away the trees, and plant corn, cotton, or 

 potatoes, and then carry off the crop, the whole thing 

 is changed. In the crops carried away, are all the 

 elements taken from the soil ; and the soil is robbed 

 of just so much. If we go on planting crops, even 

 with the best of tillage, the time will come when these 

 four elements will dwindle away. The plants will live 

 and grow, perhaps for many years, perhaps as long as 

 we choose to plant the seeds ; but the crops will be 

 smaller and smaller till at last they are not worth the 

 gathering. We must understand that a plant in grow- 

 ing must have all the elements in reach, if it is to be 

 vigorous and thrifty, and bear good crops. If one 

 be wanting, it will bear less and less every year. The 

 plant cannot speak ; the soil refuses to tell us, except 



