CHAPTER II 



THE NATURE OF SOIL 



IF WE take up a handful of mellow soil and look 

 at it closely, we can see only a crumbling mass 

 of particles, intermixed with black bits of de- 

 cayed and decaying vegetation. There seems to 

 be no life in it. Put a bit of this soil on a 

 glass slide and look at it under a powerful mi- 

 croscope; a scene of constant activity is now 

 revealed. Moulds, ferments, decays, bacteria, 

 and other organisms are constantly at work, 

 destroying, creating, changing the structure and 

 the agricultural value of this soil. Currents of 

 water pass through it; waves of heat quicken it. 

 The tiny particles of rock are ground and worn 

 smaller each year, and the plant foods are 

 changed from one form to another. The soil has 

 a flora and a fauna scarcely less complex than 

 that which clings to its surface. Little is now 

 known about the soil as compared with other 

 agricultural subjects; it is remarkable that the 

 soil, the foundation of agriculture and the be- 

 ginning of all wealth, should have received so 

 little minute study. We may expect the present 

 deep interest in soil physics and soil bacteri- 

 ology to greatly increase our knowledge of 

 this most important factor in successful farm- 

 ing. Some of the significant facts about the 

 nature of the soil, according to present knowl- 

 edge, are considered in the following para- 

 graphs. 



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