CHAPTER II 



SOILS 



The Agriculturist — or planter, as he is usually called in a knowledge 

 the West Indies and other tropical countries — has first to necesslry. 

 direct his attention to the soil, and it is necessary for him 

 to know what is its nature before he sets to work to culti- 

 vate it. 



How Soils are formed. — All soils, no matter what their Soils formed 

 kind, have been formed by the gradual breaking down or away of * 

 wearing away of the hard rocks which in ages past formed ^°'^'^^- 

 the land. For countless years the wearing away of the rocks 

 has been going on, it is going on now, and it will continue 

 to go on as long as the world remains what it is. As the 

 surfaces of these hard rocks slowly but surely crumbled The particles 

 away, the minute flakes and particles were washed down to rocks carried 

 the plains and the valleys, there to remain, or to be carried [°[^gg^^^" 

 far distances, even to the sea, by the rivers formed by rains 

 or by melting ice and snow. The breaking up of the rocks 

 is brought about by various agencies, which will now be 

 considered. 



Glacial Action.— In the arctic and antarctic regions, Snow made 

 and in mountainous countries in other parts of the world, "''°"^^- 

 the snow collects in the more elevated places, and, by the 

 pressure of its own weight, is formed into ice. More snow 

 again falling on this, it becomes too heavy and too bulky 

 to remain on the slopes of the mountains, and so it gradu- 



