lo The Great World's Farm 



expenditure of time and labor; but even then, powdered 

 rock is not soil, and will not grow any crop worthy of the 

 name. It must be mixed as well as pounded before it 

 can be converted into fertile soil, such as the farmer will 

 find it worth his while to cultivate. And who is to mix 

 it.? It will not pay him to attempt the work himself on 

 any large scale; but it has been done, and is constantly 

 being done, on all parts of the great natural farm. 



On the whole, then, the farmer will probably find it 

 best, at least for the present, to accept what has been 

 done for him., and to cultivate the soil which he finds 

 ready made. 



"Ready made?" but doesn't he still have to plow it, 

 and harrow it, and manure it? To be sure; but this is no 

 more than has to be done, and is done, by the natural 

 husbandmen also all the world over. Crops cannot be 

 grown year after year, for many years in succession, with- 

 out constant labor. For every crop takes something 

 from the soil, and the loss has to be made good. The 

 clods must be broken up, too, or the air and rain cannot 

 enter freely, and the roots cannot make their way through 

 the soil. And this the farmer must do as best he can, 

 with his plow and harrow; but these are at best only 

 clumsy instruments, and they are not enough by them- 

 selves. If the fields were deserted by the ''natural plow- 

 men, ' ' the worms, and others, the farmer would speedily 

 find that his plows could accomplish only the rough part 

 of the work. And it is much the same with the harrows; 

 they cannot do the fine work of the great "natural har- 

 row," the frost, which crumbles the soil, grain by grain, 

 till it is reduced to the condition of dust and ashes, ready 

 for sowing. 



