22 • Disintegration of the Soil. 



CHAPTER III. 



. ON DISINTEGRATING THE SOIL AND PERMEATING IT 

 WITH VEGETABLE MATTER. 



ONE of the most important points to be considered 

 in the whole subject of laying down land to grass 

 is the disintegrating or finely breaking up of the soil, 

 and the intermingling with it of a sufficient proportion 

 of vegetable matter, so that the soil may provide a good 

 nest for the plant ; for, as Sir John Lawes has well 

 pointed out, it is the physical condition of the soil, its 

 permeability to roots, its power of absorbing and radiat- 

 ing heat, and its power of absorbing and retaining 

 moisture, that is of more importance than its, strictly 

 speaking, chemical composition. This is a sentence, I 

 need hardly say, that every agriculturist should learn 

 by heart, and keep constantly before his attention, and 

 especially in connection with laying down land to grass ; 

 for it is in consequence of the neglect of Avhat Sir John 

 has so well pointed out that failures so often occur, 

 and the power to which he alludes of absorbing and 

 retaining moisture is probably of supreine importance, 

 for however abundant plant food may be, it must be 

 remembered that it cannot enter the plant except 

 through the medium of water. It is most unfortunate 

 that all our agricultural text-books should helve given 

 undue relative iniportance to the subject of agricultural 

 chemistry. It should be carefully kept in mind that this 

 is only one branch, and by no means the mo^t important, 

 of the many-sided problem of agriculture. It must 

 always be 'remembered that a soil may be chemically 

 rich, and yet in pf oductive power be far infferioi* to one 

 chemically poor, as shown, for instance, in the fUus- 



