286 SOILS 



Soils that are plowed deep never wash away ; gullies 

 and ditches seldom wrinkle and disfigure where the plow 

 is intelligently used. 



Get humus into the soil. Another step in soil improve- 

 ment is taken when humus is got into the soil. You can 

 never farm successfully without the co-operation of 

 humus, for it is the backbone and the life of the soil. 



You have many ways of securing humus, but stable 

 manure is best. It offers a big opportunity in this direc- 

 tion. It even comes to your very door. I doubt if you use 

 it to the very best advantage, so few of us do. 



The old saying that runs, 



No grass, no cattle; 

 No cattle, no manure; 

 No manure, no grass. 



applies to every American farm to-day. The cry of a 

 great majority of farms is for more manure and for better 

 preserved manure, that shall be applied to the soil more 

 intelligently and more thoughtfully than is now the case. 



In some parts of the country stable manure is never 

 used ; it rots and ferments and finds its way into the air 

 and streams to be lost forever to the soil and world. And 

 what a loss of wealth ! Just bear in mind that a day of 

 reckoning will come, and if you have been guilty, either 

 you or your children will have the penalty to pay. No 

 plea will protect and none will save. Rob the soil of the 

 humus already contained in it, deny admission to the 

 humus rightly belonging there, and the earth will become 

 sullen, stubborn, unkind ; it will be unproductive ; it will 

 refuse to yield forth its income. 



Live stock tramps the land and injures. A great injury 

 is done every soil when live stock is given liberty and 

 freedom over it, and especially when fall and winter and 



