PREFACE 



WHATEVER kind of farming a man is going in 

 for, he depends in the last instance either on his 

 own soil or on somebody else's, and unless he thoroughly 

 understands the principles of soil management he will 

 not be very successful in the crop production part of his 

 work. These principles can of course be acquired by 

 experience, but the process is likely to be costly, and 

 the young farmer of to-day is invited to attend Farm 

 Institutes or Colleges where he can be taught them and 

 be thus spared some of the bitterness of the older 

 method. By learning something about the soil and 

 about fertilisers he will be in a position to attain greater 

 success in his farming. 



But the man who simply studies the subject to make 

 a little more money will miss nine-tenths of the pleasure 

 of the work and of the joy of farming. The soil is to be 

 regarded not simply as a mine out of which a little 

 wealth may be extracted, but as a part of Nature, just 

 as wonderful and as worthy of study as any other part. 

 Whether one is deahng with its history before man 

 appeared on the scene, the changes that long generations 

 of farmers have brought about, its remarkable structure 

 or the infinite wonder of its microscopic inhabitants, it 

 presents at least as interesting a study as anything else 

 in this wonderful world of ours. The man who has learnt 



aS 



