CHAPTER II. 



THE SOIL. 



IF this book is to be of real service, we must 

 be clear about the terms and expressions, so 

 that, though you may know nothing about 

 gardening when you begin to read it, you may 

 know enough to earn a living from the soU 

 when you finish it — and practice a httle. 



Many talk glibly enough about the soil, 

 though few could tell exactly what it means. 

 But market-gardeners must understand it, if 

 they are to live by it. So it will be well to begin 

 with the soil itself. Soil is that thin layer of 

 earth that covers our globe like a blanket, 

 and in which all that plants, beasts and men 

 live upon, grows. If it were washed off, starva- 

 tion would follow. The scientific explanation 

 of the origin of this blanket, is, that it was 

 formed by the action of heat, cold, water, 

 frost, ice, low forms of vegetable life and tiny 

 animals; sometimes working singly and some- 

 times all together. It is now established 

 that the most of the face of the earth was once 

 rock which was rubbed, crushed and ground by 

 these forces until this surface layer was made. 

 Then higher forms of life became .possible. 

 Not centuries only, but aeons of time, were 



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