74 THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 



the old miner. The author thinks of it every time 

 he looks at a piece of worn-out soil. Does it not 

 remind us that when any soils are no longer sub- 

 mitted to cultivation, Nature starts the grow- 

 ing of some species of weeds upon them, in time 

 to be followed with growing grasses and the trees 

 native to the locality where the soils are situated. 

 The weeds, grass, and trees furnish the organic 

 matter that mixes with the soil, and their roots 

 extract from the rock particles of the soil the min- 

 erals needed in plant growth and so restores these 

 soils again to fertility. 



From these examples we ought to get the vision 

 that the restoration of worn-out soils simply means 

 the feeding of them an abundance of organic mat- 

 ter furnished by a system of animal and green 

 manuring. 



This is not a new system of fertility building 

 we are emphasizing. It is i l Nature 's Way ' ' which 

 has been known to agriculture since God inaugu- 

 rated the first business, the business of farming. 

 It is the only sure, safe, and solid foundation upon 

 which we may build a permanent agriculture. 

 There are valuable aids and stimulants like rock 

 phosphate, ground limestone, nitrate of soda, pot- 

 ash, drainage, soil covering, crop rotation, right 

 plowing, proper tillage, and cultivation, some of 

 which should be, and some of which must be, em- 

 ployed to promote the proper growth and assimi- 

 lation of organic matter, but organic matter is 

 the keystone that makes the permanent arch of 

 agriculture upon which it is made possible to build 

 a fertile soil. 



The author's critics in passing judgment upon 



