1 1 8 The Great World's Farm 



and apparently the same soil, and cultivated in precisely 

 the same way, yet produce v/ine of quite different qualities 

 and very different values. 



Every crop takes away from the soil, not one mineral 

 substance only, but several, in larger or smaller propor- 

 tions; and the soil is to this extent poorer than it was 

 before. If the crop is cut and carried, nearly the whole 

 of what it has taken up is lost to the soil; in the case of 

 turnips and other root crops, the whole plant is taken 

 away, and the loss is so much the greater. 



A meadow which is mown by a machine, too, loses 

 more than one mown with the scythe, as the machine cuts 

 closer; and horses are said to take more from a meadow 

 than either sheep or cows, for a similar reason, because 

 they are closer feeders. But where a crop is consumed 

 by animals, it is not all lost to the soil. On the contrary, 

 so much is returned to it in their droppings, and returned, 

 too, with increased fertilizing powers, that the land is 

 actually benefited, and needs no other manure; whereas 

 hay-meadows cannot go on bearing crops year after year 

 without being manured, or top-dressed, to make up for 

 their yearly loss. 



It is a different matter, of course, where the crops 

 grown by nature are concerned; for these, being neither 

 machine-mown nor scythe-mown, so far from rendering 

 the soil poorer, really do much to enrich it. 



Herds of wild cattle may eat off grass and herbage, as 

 they did for ages before man came and took possession of 

 their grazing-grounds, but they manured the soil in return. 



The same is also true, though in a different way, of 

 the plants themselves. If they are left alone, they return 

 to the soil all that they have taken from it, and more 



