DIVISION 11. 



THE SOIL AS RELATED TO VEGETABLE 

 PRODUCTION. 



CHAPTER L 



INTRODUCTORY. 



For the Husbandman the Soil has this paramount im- 

 portance, that it is the home of the roots of his crops and 

 the exclusive theater of his labors in promoting their 

 growth. Through it alone can he influence the amount 

 of vegetable production, for the atmosphere, and the light 

 and heat of the sun, are altogether beyond his control. 

 Agriculture is the culture of the field. The value of the 

 field lies in the quality of its soil. No study can have a 

 grander material significance than the one which gives us 

 a knowledge of the causes of fertility and barrenness, a 

 knowledge of the means of economizing the one and over- 

 coming the other, a knowledge of those natural laws 

 which enable the farmer so to modify and manage his soil 

 that all the deficiencies of the atmosphere or the vicissi- 

 tudes of climate cannot deprive him of a suitable reward 

 for his exertions. 



The atmosphere and all extra-terrestrial influences that 

 afiect the growth of plants are indeed in themselves 

 beyond our control. We cannot modify them in kind or 

 amount ; but we can influence their subserviency to our 

 purposes through the medium of the soil by a proper un- 

 derstanding of the characters of the latter. 

 104 



