CHAPTER III. 



THE NEW FERTILIZATION 



IF WHAT we are now safe in writing regarding the fertili- 

 zation of the soil had been offered for public contemplation 

 only a few years ago the information would have been received 

 with incredulity, if not with derision. To-day, while won- 

 der is still excited by the new knowledge, and the knowledge 

 itself is but meagre in comparison with that which is yet to 

 be learned, we know that what we have is fact and not fiction ; 

 that it is established truth not to be gainsaid. 



Within the memory of young men who have not yet at- 

 tained their majority the soil was considered as so much dead 

 matter, inert and void of all vitality. It was a thing to be 

 plowed and planted, and upon its surface various materials, 

 as stable manures, ground rock, bones, ashes, etc., were spread 

 from time to time, and stubbles and certain living vegetation 

 were occasionally turned under because it had been learned 

 by experience that these acts "enriched the soil," as it was 

 said, and caused it to bring forth more luxuriantly and abun- 

 dantly. The one thing considered by the husbandman was 

 the growing crop. The weeds were kept down, that they 

 might not "choke" the crop. The soil was cultivated, that 

 it might be more readily penetrated by the delicate rootlets of 

 the growing crop. The surplusage of water was drained off, 

 that the crop might not be drowned, and the normal and 

 regular rainfall was longed for, that the crop might have 

 drink as well as food. But that all these labors and processes 



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