210 HOW TO LIVE IN THE COUNTRY 



make use of the worst of weeds, for they are some- 

 times the best of manure. 



Soil, however, varies so greatly, often every few 

 rods, that we cannot lay down general rules for all 

 particular cases. There remains work for the brain, 

 and now we have not only the aid of agricultural 

 colleges, but the railroads are establishing chains of 

 test farms across our States to study the peculiarities 

 of the soil and aid the farmers. 



Subsoils are frequently worth a good deal more 

 than surface soils, and they must be constantly 

 brought up for use. If you cannot get at it any more 

 easily, send down the alfalfa, whose tap root often 

 goes twenty feet below the best plow. The passage 

 of the long roots through the soil loosens it, and when 

 they die there is humus away down below where any- 

 thing before was available. Under the sand often 

 lies clay, or mixed soils, that are richer than the sur- 

 face. 



However small your property, you had better be 

 in communication with your State experiment station 

 and invite them to examine your soils. It will be 

 of no use to send a little bottle of it to them, for you 

 have probably a dozen sorts on a ten acre field. Es- 

 pecially if you are going to try a home in some other 

 part of the country, find out ahead something about 

 what you are to cultivate. 



Soil waste I have said but little about, but I can- 

 not close this chapter until it is discussed more care- 



