8 



feed it with fertilizers, to make it just light enough, just 

 hard and solid enough, so that it may retain moisture and 

 yet not be waterlogged. 



It is not a more delicate labor for the farmer's wife to 

 raise the white loaf, spongy and moist and elastic to the 

 touch, than for the farmer to make up the hill where the 

 corn will grow that measures a hundred bushels to the 

 acre. Some wise chemist will teach that the only requisite 

 is the nutriment in the hill. The tanner knows better. 

 He knows that straw, plowed under to rot in the heavy 

 soil, lifting it and tilling it with capillary interstices, is as 

 needful as the plant food. 



He knows that a heavy crop of India wheat, or of close 

 hard turf plowed under, will recover the worn-out soil, not 

 simply by furnishing nutriment, but by putting the land 

 in condition for growth. Many a pasture is rich in mate- 

 rial for plant life, which will not furnish good feed. Plow 

 the hard turf under. Let the under soil mellow in sun 

 and shower. Raise a crop from it. Pulverize it with the 

 hoe, and seed it down with clover and red top, and your 

 herds will rejoice in the abundant feed. You might as 

 well sleep in a bed that has not felt the touch of a wom- 

 an's hand for a twelvemonth as to expect white clover to 

 grow with sweet leaf and honeyed blossom for your cattle 

 on the hard-packed earth. To give the soil the right 

 porosity, to expose it to the air, to give it the right nutri- 

 ment, requires wisdom. 



The problem becomes more intricate when he studies 

 the elements which make up the products. He needs to 

 know not only what he raises, but why he raises it. 



