48 The Great World's Farm 



brown when dry, owes its color and much of its fertihty 

 to the finely divided and well-mixed vegetable matter 

 which it contains, the remains of countless generations of 

 wild plants, which held undisturbed possession there for 

 ages, but have now made way for their betters. 



All soils contain some amount of organic matter, animal 

 or vegetable, but chiefly vegetable; and this is true even 

 of such as seem to consist only of sand, clay, or chalk. 

 For wherever it is possible for a plant to grow at all, 

 thither something suited to the situation is sure to find its 

 way. The wild crop may be a very poor one, perhaps 

 only some coarse, wiry kind of grass — for there is hardly 

 any soil so poor but that grass of some kind will grow in 

 it — and when this has improved the soil a little, other 

 better sorts may follow. 



But it is the effect of animal life that we are now to 

 look at. Animals, large and sniall, benefit the land by 

 manuring it; but this is so obvious a benefit that we need 

 not dwell upon it further than to remark that coprolites — 

 the fossilized droppings and bones of animals of former 

 ages — and guano, the droppings of birds, are among the 

 most valuable manures which the farmer can use, and 

 where they are not to be had upon the spot he finds it 

 worth his while to bring them from a distance. When, 

 therefore, we consider the abundant animal life which for 

 ages occupied many of the lands now brought under the 

 plow, we can understand one cause of their fertility — they 

 have been regularly manured for ages. But besides 

 manuring the land during their lives, the animals must 

 have left their bones to enrich it also, whenever they 

 escaped being devoured. 



Burrowing animals have also been especially useful in 



