IN THE EVERGLADES 41 



of the frost, and this, no doubt, has a great deal to do also with 

 removing and neutralizing the acidity there. As we in the South 

 cannot depend upon this process, the defect must be artificially 

 overcome by thorough tillage, and by adding lime or wood ashes, 

 the latter supplying, in addition to the useful carbonate of lime, 

 both phosphate and potash in their most available forms. 



Ordinary soil from an organic standpoint is an accumulation 

 of broken rock, decomposed minerals and other disorganized 

 organic matter a dead, inert mass, virtually the waste of Nature's 

 workshop. 



However, there exists an organic as well as a chemical life 

 which is so complex in its action and reaction, marriage and 

 divorce, utterly disregarding all moral laws in seeking its affinities, 

 that it presents some of the most complicated problems found in 

 physical science. 



Here in the tropical South, where there is practically no inter- 

 ference by frost, the changes go on undisturbed, favorably affect- 

 ing the fertilizer ingredients or manure supplied. Plant life 

 possesses intelligent volition, stands higher, and produces more 

 decided results than is brought about by chemical action or 

 mineral instinct, thus building up plant structure by dissolving 

 and absorbing from the minute soil particles. This is further facil- 

 itated by the weak acid which is known to exude from the ends 

 of the feeding rootlets of plants, which while bringing about this 

 dissolution at the same time absorb in their structure these useful 

 and necessary ingredients. 



The chemist tells us that this air around us, which we can 

 neither see nor grasp, and of which we take but little account, 

 mixed up with a little water makes up about 95 per cent of our 

 growing crops. We know something of this, being aware of 

 the fact that if we burn a ton of combustible matter, we have in 

 the remaining ash a residue that is a mere pittance in comparison 

 to its former bulk and weight the greater amount returns to 

 the air, from which it originally sprang; thus showing clearly 

 that plant life has simply borrowed and returned these interesting 

 substances. Our soil, therefore, acts chiefly as a place in which 



