98 THE BUSINESS OF FAEMING 



organic matter make the fertile soil, and produce 

 the condition essential to healthy, abundant plant 

 growth. If this be true, then to make our soils 

 fertile and put them upon a profitable basis for 

 the successful conduct of the business of farm- 

 ing, is to learn to do the things that will bring 

 about these conditions. 



God furnishes us with plenty of air and sun- 

 shine, and we need not give 'ourselves any concern 

 about these elements, except to ascertain how to 

 get the air into the soil. Sunlight coming into 

 contact with the soil produces the warmth neces- 

 sary to wake up and bring into action the sleeping 

 life of the seed. Getting the air into the soil is 

 the simple process of ditching the soil and filling 

 it with organic matter ; both these things let into 

 the soil an abundance of air if done in the proper 

 manner. 



We must know our soils. This knowledge is 

 the very foundation of the success of the business 

 of farming. Hosts of farmers in numbers as the 

 sands of the sea have spent their lives upon the 

 soils of Mother Earth, and even in their last days 

 were as ignorant of the needs and possibilities of 

 their soils, and the correct methods of handling 

 them, as little children. To prove this statement 

 we have but to point to the world's worn, worn- 

 out and abandoned farms which have chiefly been 

 owned by this class of men. 



The injunction has come ringing down through 

 the ages, "Man, know thyself." If then the soil 

 is the very foundation of man's existence here 

 on earth, it is as equally important that men 

 should know their soils, that they may ascertain 



