THE WIZARDRY OF THE SOIL 



waste lands and moral bogs, we must also 

 admit that our good earth-mother may be 

 a little better for being a little bad, inasmuch 

 as she is more stimulating to human en- 

 deavor than she would be with no bad 

 streaks in her. 



Having thus satisfied the demands of 

 candor in our estimate of enchantress 

 earth, our love and loyalty call for a few 

 more words of appreciation. 



With his usual insight and outsight, 

 Booker Washington declares that the best 

 way to keep the Negro clean and honest is 

 to keep him close to the soil. This clean, 

 wholesome influence of the earth, a whole- 

 someness whose very breath one may catch 

 from a freshly plowed field, is a force whose 

 strength the world is only beginning to meas- 

 ure. One wonders what inhabitant of the 

 city ever knew how much he had lost by in- 

 sulating himself with city pavements from 

 healthful contact with the soil. Standing on 

 the good brown earth (preferably his own 

 little lot of it), sometimes lying on it when 

 the sun has made it warm as the hand-clasp 



43 



