THE SOIL, THE PLANT, THE ANIMAL 5 



use them if they could. Obtained in the form that 

 plants utilize they would be poison to animal life. 

 Nature's way is different. Plants grow: which 

 means they feed on the element compounds. But, 

 young or mature, these same plants are food for ani- 

 mals. The elements, by means of the plant cells, 

 have been worked up into plant tissue ; and as such 

 animal forms of life are sustained. 



The animal cannot feed from soil and air direct. 



Two SOURCES OF PHOSPHORUS 



In the early days bones were gathered for fertilizing. The Indians used 

 fish. Today the phosphoric acid of fertilizers is secured largely from 

 ground bone or finely ground phosphate rr 



It is necessary for the plant to take these elements 

 and build them into tissue first. On this plant tissue 

 the animal feeds. After the animal dies, with its 

 decay and decomposition, come the changes of 

 animal tissue back to soil and air back to the 

 original materials they go again, as they were before 

 the time when captured by roots and leaves and 

 made into plants. But once back in soil and air the 

 same story is repeated : another capture is made by 



