CHAPTER XXXV 



RELATION OF FERTILITY TO APPEARANCE OF SOILS OR 



CROPS 



IT is probably not too much to say that the average man is ever 

 on the alert to " discover" the cause for every effect. This is well, 

 but not infrequently two or three examples are readily accepted 

 as proof sufficient sometimes to become a tradition. Thus do some 

 people still plant potatoes in the dark of the moon, although, as 

 T. B. Terry says, it were better to plant in the light of the moon, 

 when one can see to work late at night. 



To find a " Shakespere " plant of wheat from which a new variety 

 may be established is perhaps a laudable search, but, as a rule, 

 hauling manure is a more remunerative employment. It is well 

 that some men have the " gold fever," but those of large experience 

 and observation tell us that more money is buried in gold mines 

 than is ever dug out. 



Success in agriculture depends largely upon knowledge and work. 

 Fortunate is the man who knows what to do and does it. Not much 

 knowledge or skill is required to secure temporary success where 

 rich, virgin land is accepted as a gift or at a very low price, and 

 where the unearned increment amounts to $100 or more per acre 

 for the man who does little else than to draw upon his capital stock 

 for support. 



Permanent success requires knowledge, thought, investment, 

 and work, and success for the many lies within reach along these 

 lines; whereas, sudden riches from gold mines, oil wells, inventions, 

 or discoveries are rare misfortunes; and there is no more free land 

 in the humid section of the United States. 



Directions are often given by which it is held that one can tell 

 from the appearance of the crop what plant food is lacking in the soil. 

 Thus we are told that nitrogen produces a rank growth of straw or 



572 



