CHAPTER VI 



THE FASCINATING ART OF SOIL BUILDING 



When you hold up a Carnation and inhale its 

 spicy fragrance; touch the satin petals of a Rose; 

 or admire the glowing colors of a Tulip — do 

 you ever stop to wonder "whence comes 

 this?" 



Out of the earth, the soil, the common dirt at 

 our feet! Of the multitudinous things to be 

 marveled at, do you know of any more strikingly 

 wonderful? Out of the same inert brown soil 

 ccme the glistening whiteness of a Gardenia, the 

 flaming crimson of a Poinsettia, the pure blue 

 of a Forget-me-not, and all the shades imaginable 

 in between. Each plant (through what process, 

 the most advanced scientist can give no more 

 than a baby's guess) searching, selecting, reject- 

 ing, accepting, what it finds in the soil, building 

 up its own individual pattern of cell tissue, of 

 plant form, of bloom. 



"Inert Soil ! " That is the stereotyped phrase. 

 Inert? About as inert as the Battle of the 

 Somme! — only it is on a microscopic scale. For 



57 



