Southern Gardener's Practical Manual 



PART I.-INTRODUCTION 



THE SOIL 



The agriculturist and horticulturist must have a clear 

 conception of the relations which soil, plants and animals 

 bear to each other and to man, who is entrusted with the 

 responsible commission to keep, till, and beautify the 

 earth. He who leaves that part of the earth's surface 

 which has been entrusted to his care in a worse condition 

 than it was when he gained possession of it, is a desecrator 

 of God's footstool and a violator of a most sacred trust. 



All life is dependent upon soil and air. This being 

 true, every tiller of soil is interested in the origin of soil 

 and the agencies which contributed to its production. 

 This interest is intensified when he learns that the same 

 agencies which gave birth to the soil are his daily and 

 hourly co-laborers in preserving and increasing its pro- 

 ductiveness. Geologists tell us that, at some period in the 

 remote past, the crust of the earth was solid rock, and 

 that through the alternation of heat and cold, expansion 

 and contraction of the immediate surface, fissures were 

 made, into which rain-water entered, and this, by means 

 of its wonderful expansive force when frozen, burst 

 asunder the sides of the fissures and crumbled or disinte- 



A 1 



