IO4 TALKS ABOUT THE SOIL. 



and burn it, we shall have a little smoke, and last of 

 all a pinch of soft ashes. In this drying and burning, 

 the dead plant parts with a portion of the elements it 

 contained, by permitting them to float away unseen on 

 the air. The rest it leaves in its ashes. We can 

 gather up the ashes, and put them back in the soil, 

 and they will be ready for some new plant growing on 

 the spot occupied by the dead pea-vine or clover- 

 plant. All the elements burned up in the plants, that 

 were lost in drying, and that disappeared as gas and 

 smoke, remain in the air, or fall to the ground, and 

 thus go to feed other plants. All the elements left in 

 the ashes are also ready, when put back in the soil, to 

 be used by other plants. A thin, poor soil can thus 

 be made more fertile by sowing clover, and, when the 

 plants are about one-third grown, ploughing the live 

 plants under, and burying them out of sight. The 

 green plants will decay, and restore to the soil the 

 elements they took from the air and water, and leave 

 all their elements in a condition fit for food for another 

 and a better crop that is to follow. Besides this, the 

 dead clover causes the soil to be light, loose, and 

 ready for the roots of new plants. The next plants 

 will find more organic matter in the soil than before, 

 and will take up the elements left by the clover, and 

 grow larger, and bear better crops, than if the clover 

 had not lived and died for their benefit. 



This plan of burying live green plants in the ground 

 is called green-manuring. The best plants for this 

 purpose are pease and clover, and when used in this 



