118 THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 



needed, furnishes the food for germ life and bac- 

 teria, the food for plant growth, and releases and 

 makes available the minerals bound up in the rock 

 particles of the soil. 



Like the soil medicine of drainage, the medicine 

 of organic matter and humus must be prescribed 

 in big doses for sick, worn, and worn-out soils. 

 It is the soil medicine that cannot in this age be 

 given in over doses. True, Nature "overdosed" 

 it in some instances, as in the case of muck soils 

 where organic matter and humus were given to 

 the soil for ages, and when no greedy farmer was 

 near to consume these soil elements by the grow- 

 ing of those gainful crops which feed upon and 

 consume them. 



The next dose of "soil medicine" to be admin- 

 istered is "proper plowing of the soil." Like the 

 ancient farmer, to-day many of the farmers of 

 the old countries scratch the soil with a crooked 

 stick and call it plowing. Even many of the farm- 

 ers of our country with their new and most mod- 

 ern styles of plows scratch their soils three or four 

 inches deep and encourage themselves with the 

 thought that they are really plowing the soil. 



Nature's plows are the roots of plants and 

 trees, and with these plows she stirs and mixes 

 the soil to a great depth, and more effectively than 

 man with his most modern plows, and she never 

 plows the soil in an improper condition. 



The object to be secured in plowing is to so stir 

 the soil in its right stage so that the organic mat- 

 ter and humus will be mixed with the rock particles 

 of the soil that a deep seed bed be obtained, so that 

 the storage capacity for water in the soil will be 



