PART II 



THE SOIL AND ITS IMPROVEMENT 

 CHAPTER VII 



THE SOIL 



A soil, to be fertile, must above all things be light and pliable, and 

 this condition we seek to bring about by the operation of plowing. 



VIRGIL. 



54. Soil and Life. The ancients used to say, " The earth 

 is the mother of us all." 

 This statement is liter- 

 ally true. The soil sup- 

 plies us with the means 

 of life. In great meas- 

 ure, all living beings 

 are organized soil par- 

 ticles. Plants and ani- 

 mals and human bodies 

 are made up of sub- 

 stances which occur in 

 a simple state in nearly 

 every handful of earth. 

 Man cannot use these 

 simple substances di- 

 rectly as food, but plants 

 can and do ; and man 

 and all the higher animals live on plants or on other 

 animals which thrive on plants. 



93 



CLOD OF SOIL MAGNIFIED. 



This soil is said to be not "in good 

 tilth," as the particles are bunched, not 

 loose and granular. 



