64 PRACTICAL FARM CHEMISTRY. 



its price, is not often worth the effort and labor and 

 manure necessary to grow a crop on it. To make it 

 productive and profitable is up-hill business. The 

 *' cheap land" bait leads into a dangerous, and 

 usually, fatal trap. Don't throw your life away on 

 poor soil! Fight shy of the worn-out farms! One 

 acre of soil possessing the great reserve stores of the 

 essential plant foods, is worth ten, yea twenty acres 

 of soil that in its natural condition will yield only, 

 six or eight bushels of wheat per acre, or other crops 

 in proportion. Be sure to begin right. You may be- 

 gin small. A small farm is safer to begin with than 

 a large one; but let the soil be fertile. You will 

 seldom be able to purchase plant food — the raw ma- 

 terials you need for the production of paying crops 

 — in a cheaper form than when already mixed with 

 the soil. 



