ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 39 



most difficult clay, so hard that when sunburnt it resembles 

 fine-grained pottery, but which is nevertheless cultivated 

 upon the principles of light-land farming. And why? because 

 it is filled with flint stones so completely crammed with 

 them that it approaches the character of an open, breaking, 

 friable soil. There is therefore not the least doubt that stones 

 in a soil have a very great effect upon its mechanical texture. 



Then there is a third point which depends upon the par- 

 ticular nature of the stones. They may conserve moisture, 

 or they may tend to dryness. Sand stones, or porous stones, 

 which are capable of absorbing moisture, probably give 

 out their store in droughty periods to the surrounding soil ; 

 but there may be other stones which have a reverse action, so 

 that we cannot say absolutely which effect they may exert ; 

 but we may say that they exert an effect upon the degree of 

 moisture and coolness in the soil. The case is then perfectly 

 clear, that mineral fragments are of use in soils. 



We have now worked upwards from soluble and invisible 

 ingredients through the smallest particles to the largest 

 fragments in the soil ; and we perceive that we have in the 

 soil a very wonderful and complex substance. I was once 

 struck by a remark made by my much respected friend, the 

 late Mr. John Chalmers Morton, in which he summed up the 

 qualities of the soil in the following words " It is a store- 

 house ; it is a laboratory ; and it is a vehicle." Those are 

 three excellent expressions to bear in mind. It is a store- 

 house of plant food. It is the grazing ground for plants. It 

 is a physiological and chemical laboratory, in which changes 

 take place of all kinds changes in the inorganic materials ; 

 changes in the organic matter, assisted by countless myriads 

 of bacteria, causing a kind of fermentation which results 

 in what is called nitrification actions and reactions constantly 

 going on. The conclusion is, that we have in the soil the very 

 womb of all life. It is the nursing mother of us all, and the 



