42 AGRICULTURE. 



CHAPTER X. 



IMPROVING THE SOIL. 



c Feed the soil if you would have the soil feed you." 



EXHAUSTING THE SOIL. Sometimes we see a very heavy crop 

 of corn, oats, barley or roots grown in the open field. In such 

 cases we generally find that there is a good soil, well-drained, 

 and that the season has been very favorable. As a rule, how- 

 ever, we find much larger crops grown in the garden of the 

 farmer, and still larger grown in the little plot of the market 

 gardener. The flower grower, however, produces still heavier 

 crops in his small pots and neat beds. If we observe closely 

 we find that the amount of the crop, its size or weight, and its 

 value, increase in proportion as the soil is well-drained, well- 

 tilled, well-cleaned, and well-fertilized. If we neglect or decrease 

 the draining and cultivating, the cleaning and the enriching, we 

 know the crop will grow less year by year. When the trees 

 were first cut down and the fields partially cleared large crops 

 were grown ; the soil was new (virgin soil as we say); it contained 

 a large amount of leaf mold that had been accumulating for 

 centuries. On many (arms larger crops were once grown 

 among the stumps than are now grown on the cleared field. 

 Then the stumps were burned out, and the ashes, rich in potash 

 and lime, further improved the soil. In some cases the fields 

 have been well-drained and well-cultivated, and year by year 

 the fields have been fertilized or manured. Such farms are 

 still very productive. But we all know what are called run- 

 down farms, that will not now produce heavy crops of grain 

 or hay ; they were once the same as the first-class farms, they 

 had the same start. Why the change ? Year after year hay and 



