THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



137 



THE ORIGIN OF OUR SOILS. 



J. AENETT. 



While the earth spins upon its axis it waltzes 

 around the sun in an elliptical orbit inclining at an 

 angle of 23 27' 

 " 6 to the plane 

 of the celestial 

 equator, and 

 which, perforce, it 

 interesects at its 

 ascending and de- 

 scending nodes 

 about the 21st of 

 March and Sep- 

 tember respective- 

 ly. These inter- 

 sections are never 

 at the same points 

 in the earth's or- 

 bit, but have a re- 

 trocession west- 

 ward of 50" 1 of 

 arc, and in conse- 

 quence vast earth- 

 involving changes 

 running through 

 & period of 25,868 

 years follow, and 

 during which time 

 each and every 

 point in the earth's 

 orbit has its peri- 

 helion and aphe- 

 lion passage. 



The reader 

 may ask what has 

 this to do with 

 "the origin of our 

 soils ?" Let us 

 eee. The eccen- 

 t r i c i t y of the 

 earth's orbit is 

 .016771, and tak- 

 ing the earth's 

 mean distance from 

 the sun at 92,790,- 

 000 miles we are 

 3,112,560 miles 

 nearer the sun 

 when the earth is 

 a t its perihelion 

 passage, about De- 

 cember 2 1 , than 

 when at its aphe- 

 lion, about June 

 21. What then? In 

 going through the 

 circuit above men- 

 tioned, tho earth 

 reached its aphe- 

 lion passage in 



midwinter, far, far away from the sun, not an annual 

 midwinter, but a midwinter extending through a period 

 of 6,467 years. See, kind reader, the hand of the clock 

 geologic points to the hour of eternal winter. Giant 



HON. C. W. MARSH. 



Mr. C. W. Marsh, whose portrait is herewith shown, is one of the best known 

 editors of class publications in % the United States. Mr. Marsh has been editor of 

 Farm Implement News, of Chicago, and one of its principal stockholders since the Mews 

 came into existence, some eighteen or twenty years ago. He has been prominent not 

 only as an editor, but at one time as one of the leading manufacturers of harvesting 

 machinery in the world. He was for many years at the head of the Marsh Harvester 

 Company, nd, on that company going out of business, Mr. Marsh took up newspaper 

 work and has proven himself remarkably strong along these lines. His many friends 

 will be glad to know that the newspaper venture has been exceedingly successful; 

 Farm Implement Ne-tos stands today as one of the best class papers published in 

 America, both editorially and as a money-earner. The editor of THE IRRIGATION AGE 

 was connected with Farm Implement News during its early history and was thereby 

 brought into close contact with Mr. Marsh and the other members of that company, 

 and it affords him great pleasure to be able to testify to the absolute uprightness of 

 the gentleman, his sincere desire at all times to be fair and ripht in the editorial 

 columns of his journal. It is thought fitting at this time to say a few words concern- 

 ing Mr. Marsh, in view of the statement that he will within the next year withdraw 

 from active work in connection with his paper and spend liis remaining days at his 

 comfortable country home, between Sycamore and DeKalb, 111. The portrait shown of 

 Mr. Marsh is the one from which a medallion was made at the time of the World's 

 Fair, commemorating his participation in the development of harvesting machinery in 

 America. 



winter in his icy fetters holds universal nature bound, 

 and death itself, with vitals frozen, lies prone at his 

 feet. During these long and dreary winters the earth, 

 away off yonder from the sun at its aphelion passage, 

 snow, sleet and ice accumulated upon the north frigid 

 zone to miles in thickness, feathering off toward the 



equator to about 

 40 degrees north 

 latitude. And now 

 what ? This vast 

 hood of snow, sleet 

 and ice, in obe- 

 dience to the cen- 

 trifugal force ex- 

 erted upon it by 

 the rotation of the 

 earth on its axis, 

 outward flows in 

 glaciers long, deep 

 and wide. These 

 glaciers pushed 

 down mountains, 

 filled up valleys 

 and made the 

 rough places plane. 

 These glacial riv- 

 ers scooped out the 

 basins of the 

 Great Lakes, tore 

 up the solid bed- 

 rock and ground it 

 to atoms beneath 

 their omnipotent 

 tread and pushed 

 it in million-yard 

 masses and mo- 

 raines along their 

 highway of march. 

 The southerly or 

 protruding tongues 

 of these glaciers 

 melted away in 

 ocean gushes be- 

 neath the warmth 

 of a more souther- 

 ly sun, and these 

 waters took the 

 above finely-pulver- 

 ized material and 

 carried i t here, 

 there and yonder, 

 while that falling 

 in eddy places re- 

 mained where it 

 fell, and that fall- 

 ing on higher 

 ground was oft 

 claimed again by 

 counter currents 

 strong and borne 

 away. 



It is a law of 

 matter that every 

 molecule in the vast universe attracts and is attracted 

 by every other molecule in inverse ratio to the squares 

 of their distances asunder. This being true, this mighty 

 hood of snow, sleet and ice, that weighted down the 



