THE NEW EARTH 



potassium and calcium — are liable to be lack- 

 ing in any given soil. When any one of these 

 four is wanting, however, dire results follow. 

 They are the fundamental quartette without 

 which there is no harmony in agriculture. 



It is a part of the work of the agricultural 

 chemist in these days to make analyses of the 

 soils sent him, in order to determine not only 

 their structure but whether or not any of the 

 chief parts in the general harmony are below 

 pitch or are lacking altogether ; or whether the 

 soil contains any injurious materials, as acid 

 or strong alkaline substance. There are scales 

 for the weighing out of small portions of soil, 

 so delicately balanced that they will weigh a 

 pencil-mark upon a slip of tissue paper. Small 

 portions of the soil are thus weighed out and 

 then treated with chemicals, washed, dried, 

 burned, put to every sort of test. 



Working in a chemist's laboratory one day, 

 I took a pinch of the rich wheat-land soil of 

 the famous Red River Valley of the North, 

 and placed it on a thin platinum scoop about 

 as large as a silver dollar, holding the scoop 

 over an intense heat, fully 1,000° Fahrenheit. 

 Swiftly the blue-green flame of the gas turned 



