^^ SOIL 



sprouting and developing. You will understand 

 why such soil is not often in the market. It is 

 Nature's materials plus man's inteUigent labor; 

 and he who has it, is usually found working 

 it to his own profit. 



Some soils are easily put into condition : others 

 require much time and labor, but all always 

 repay. It is well, however, to avoid a hard, 

 cold, clayey soil if possible; it takes so long to 

 warm up, that the seeds make little progress. 

 Of course, steady persistent effort will greatly 

 improve even this soil, and if that is the sort 

 you have, you must do your best with it, but 

 the average gardener cannot afford to wait. 



Compared with agriculture, which has been 

 known in some form ever since there have been 

 any records, tillage is very new. Like many 

 another important thing, it was discovered 

 quite accidentally by an English farmer, named 

 Jethro Tull. He found that by stirring up 

 the soil about his plants, he got better returns; 

 and gave his discovery to the world. But he 

 could not explain why it was so; he merely 

 knew the fact itself. Science has since dis- 

 covered that it is due to the action of the air 

 in helping to break up the many compounds 

 found in the earth containing plant food. It 

 was a simple thing, yet it has really revolution- 



