CHAPTER II. 

 THE SOIL AND ITS TREATMENT. 



Origin of Soils Composition of Soils Subsoil Drainage How to 

 Drain Deep Cultivation Bastard Trenching Ridging Texture 

 Lime Calcium Carbonate Gas-lime Soil Bacteria Nitro-Bacterine 

 Cultures Soil Moisture Autumn Cultivation Spring Cultivation 

 Hoeing and Mulching. 



ORIGIN of Soils. The accepted doctrine regarding the 

 origin of soils, is that the exposed parts of the primitive 

 rocks which at a very remote period in the history of the earth 

 formed its entire surface, were broken down by the process 

 known as " weathering," or, in other words, by the action of 

 rain, running water, alternate heat and cold, air, and by the 

 grinding motion of glaciers. 



This pulverised material was carried down and deposited on 

 the plains and in the valleys by wind, flood and gravitation, and 

 in the course of ages the earlier deposits again became con- 

 solidated into rocks of a character distinctly unlike those from 

 which the materials forming them were derived. The weather- 

 ing process persisted throughout the ages during which this 

 re-formation was taking place. In most cases the disintegrated 

 material was deposited where it was formed, and we thus 

 find that most soils bear a definite relationship to the rocks 

 beneath them. In other cases the material was carried away 

 by rivers and streams and deposited in low-lying situations, 

 often at a considerable distance from the place of origin, 

 thus accounting for instances of soils unrelated to the rocks 

 underlying them. 



The next step in the process of soil formation is obscure, 

 involving as it does the problem of the origin of life upon the 

 earth. Some hold to the opinion that lichens or similar low 

 forms of vegetable life first grew upon the debris, and were the 

 forerunners of higher forms, whilst others contend that as 

 vegetable life is impossible without the assistance of the micro- 

 organisms of the soil, these must have had the precedence. 



