PREFACE. 



This book is the result of an effort to put into the plain language of the farm 

 the facts which scientists have worked out in the laboratory, and which practical 

 experience has proved to be applicable to the every day work of the farm. It is 

 written for men who know nothing of chemistry, but who are anxious to learn 

 something of the chemical combinations that are of value in the feeding of crops, 

 and the best way to use them in the permanent improvement of their soil. For 

 men who know nothing of the mysteries of plant life, but who are anxious to learn 

 how plants live, grow and perform all their work in soil and air, so that they may 

 be better able to comprehend their needs, and supply them in a rational manner. 



While endeavoring to make the book scientifically accurate in all its statements 

 I have tried to avoid all pedantry, but to make the whole so plain that the "way- 

 faring man, though a fool, need not err." I have undertaken the work with 

 a good deal of misgiving as to what should be its exact position on some of the 

 problems in nature as yet not fully solved, and about which there is much yet 

 to be learned by the wisest minds. When such problems are attempted, I will 

 candidly say that I do not as yet fully comprehend the processes involved, I will 

 give the results so far as they are known. The acquirement of nitrogen 

 by leguminous plants is one of the problems that has not yet been fully worked 

 out, and while we know that they do get the nitrogen through the agency of 

 minute organisms that live with them on their roots, the exact process by which 

 these microscopic forms get the nitrogen is not yet fully understood. But for our 

 purpose it is enough to know that they do get it and store it in the roots and soil 

 for the future crop. 



N. C. College of A. &. M. A., 



Raleigh, N. C. 



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