6 FARM CROPS 



through abuse, neglect and cruelty. They need a 

 wise and tender hand to restore them to the fruc- 

 tuous state in which they fulfilled their mission 

 before the soil-robber came. 



The plow will do much to restore original fer- 

 tility. It will assist nature to make plant food avail- 

 able for the tiny fibrous roots. The plow will let 

 air and moisture into the soil. These two elements, 

 air and moisture, will be as useful as they are above 

 the soil where they cause iron to rust, leaves to 

 crumble into powder, forest trees to break their 

 original elements, bricks to chip into pieces, stones 

 to lose their tenacity. In the same way they cause 

 all these visible bodies to resolve themselves into 

 original elements and go to feed plants. In that 

 same way do they act in the soil and render this 

 hitherto locked-up plant food available for the 

 plant. 



TILLAGE MORE NEEDED THAN FER- 

 TILIZERS 



This action is readily understood if we examine 

 an analogous case. By heat the air is driven from 

 a can of fruit that we wish to preserve. The fruit, 

 rich in delicate flavor and appetizing essences, 

 keeps as long as air, with the destroying bacteria 

 it carries, is excluded from the can. But puncture 

 the can or remove the lid and at once the fruit 

 begins to decay and to become fine fertilizer for a 

 potted plant. In like manner much plant nutrition 

 is canned up in stiff or packed soils. But let a 

 deep plowshare go crashing into these soils and at 

 once the " canned-up condition " gives way and the 

 available plant food is freed as a result. 



