284 SOILS 



nose the cases as they come up and to prescribe the 

 remedy. If they require drainage, it is to your profit to 

 drain them. It is likely that nothing else will avail. 

 Certainly, stiff, wet soils are useless to you for many 

 kinds of crop. You gain nothing by postponement you 

 lessen your income only. If any of your soils are sour, 

 then sweeten them with lime, and put them in fit 

 condition for plants that would do their best if their 

 home environments were only such that they might 

 do so. 



Call tillage into use. You should be thinking of tillage 

 much of the time. It should occupy a large place in your 

 thoughts. It should be a sort of human connection with 

 the soil. 



Here is an old story : 



Once upon a time an old man who was dying called his 

 sons to his bedside and told them in whispers that in 

 the garden a treasure was hidden which, if they would 

 dig diligently, they would find. The sons could hardly 

 wait to bury their dead father before thud, thud, thud, 

 their picks were going in the garden. Day after day 

 they dug; they dug deep ; they dug wide. Yet of treasure 

 of silver or gold found they none as they feverishly 

 searched. But still no treasure was found. 



"Our father has deceived us," one said. 



"Let us not lose every bit of our labor; let us plant this 

 pick-scarred garden," said the eldest. 



So the garden was planted, and in the fullness of time 

 the earth yielded up her increase ; and when it was seen 

 how wondrously bountiful was the harvest and so unex- 

 pected the father's meaning dawned upon them. 

 "Truly/' they said, "a treasure was hidden there. Let us 

 seek it in all our fields." 



The story applies to-day as it did when it was first told. 



