OUR WORN SOILS 75 



this volume will no doubt condemn the repetition 

 we have practiced regarding the merits and uses 

 of organic matter. Our only excuse for this repe- 

 tition is that the importance of organic matter to 

 the soils, and permanency of the business of farm- 

 ing, demands that its value and necessity be em- 

 phasized over and over again until it is so burned 

 into the brain of every owner and tiller of the 

 soil that its use for fertility building and soil 

 restoration will become universal. 



Strange as it may seem, it is nevertheless 

 the truth, that so many tillers of the soil, although 

 they recognize the importance of organic matter 

 in their business, seem utterly helpless to devise 

 and put into execution methods by which they can 

 obtain it for their sick and ailing soils. 



Much of this is due to effects of environment, 

 prejudice engendered by jealousy, lack of capital, 

 experience and education, and failures that could 

 have been avoided. 



We have shown how environment sets a man 

 in his ways of doing things, that might be done 

 with safety under certain conditions, that cannot 

 be done under changed conditions without failure 

 and disaster. We have often given demonstra- 

 tions of the use of organic matter in its various 

 forms that produced profitable and the finest re- 

 sults, yet men would see and acknowledge them 

 and yet never did apply the same remedy to their 

 own sick and dying soils. 



We have been laughed at for growing crops of 

 rye and vetch sown in growing corn at end of cul- 

 tivating season, allowing same to grow and cover 

 the soil during fall and winter season without 



