204 FIELD, FOREST AND FARM 



"Agriculture in its turn," remarked Uncle Paul, 

 turning to account this homely illustration in do- 

 mestic economy, "prepares dinner for the crops in 

 its own peculiar manner. It spreads the ground 

 with manure, that fertile dressing so relished by 

 growing plants. The table is set, or in other words 

 the field is ready, well plowed and harrowed, and well 

 manured. Whom shall we call first to the table, for 

 it is plain we cannot invite all at once. Whom shall 

 we call first? It shall be wheat, let us say, a plant 

 with tastes hard to please, but one that in return 

 gives us bread. So wheat is sown. In this soil, full 

 of all sorts of good things, it cannot fail to thrive, 

 however unfavorable the season may be. It will se- 

 lect what suits it best and leave the rest. 



"Now that is done. The harvest is in, and it 

 handsomely comes up to our hopes. The wheat has 

 converted into magnificent grain the fertilizer put 

 into the ground. Out of decay it has created nour- 

 ishment. Surely it has well acquitted itself of its 

 charge. It has made a clean sweep : all that could be 

 turned into wheat it has appropriated, and there 

 remains nothing further to be done. What would 

 happen, then, if wheat were sown ag^in in the same 

 field? Exactly the same thing that would happen 

 to Simon if he had nothing to eat but the bone that 

 Jacques threw away. He would die of hunger. Si- 

 mon must have man's food, wheat must have wheat's 

 food. So if the first crop has exhausted the supply 

 of material for making wheat, how can you expect 

 to raise a second crop? Evidently that is asking 



