BOOK OF THE HOME GARDEN 



Mother Nature started 3, tiny fern, and every year, 

 for years and years, the leaves die in the fall of 

 the year, and drop down to the ground, making 

 more humus, and the rains wash little particles 

 from the rock and they fall into the humus, and 

 make soil, and a larger fern grows ; as more humus 

 accumulates, a tree grows and so all soils are made, 

 humus and powdered . rock. This, of course, was 

 started so many years ago we cannot think how 

 many, and now we have all the soil we need; some 

 have lots of humus and others have lots of rock. 

 The prairie has so much humus from the ages and 

 ages of dead prairie grass that the soil is black, 

 and we call it "black waxy." Those of you who 

 live where there is much soft, splintering rock have 

 a "shale" soil without so much humus, and those 

 who live on islands and peninsulas have some 

 humus, some clay and some sand, and we call that 

 "sandy loam." But always and always wise na- 

 ture has given us plenty of the powdered rock, and 

 always and always as long as there were forests 

 and prairie grass to drop their leaves in the fall, 

 there was enough humus ; but when the forests were 

 cut down, and the prairie plowed up, Nature could 

 not give her land humus any more. So that is what 

 gardeners and farmers must do for her. 



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