4R SOIL 



FERTILITY 



you must have to raise a crop of corn, oats, 

 potatoes, hay, etc., you will see the value of land 

 that has the power to hold water. There was a 

 farmer in Pennsylvania who got his farm in 

 such a water preserving condition that he said 

 the spring rains were a nuisance. Watch the 

 soil and you will see, that soil that is filled with 

 decayed vegetable matter and humus is warmer 

 in the winter-time, cooler in the summer-time, 

 wetter in dry weather and dryer in wet weather. 



A mulch which preserves the moisture in 

 hot or cold weather also unlocks this fertility 

 of the soil. 



All of this is of immense importance, not only 

 to the farmer on a large scale, but also to you, 

 with the limited area of your garden yard; 

 for in it lies the secret of heavier and earUer 

 crops than your less instructed neighbors. 

 Professor Whitney, Chief of the Bureau of 

 Soils, Department of Agriculture, Wash., says 

 that deep plowing and shallow cultivation are 

 the best means of retaining moisture in the soil, 

 and he adds, " Strange as it may seem, while we 

 suffer if we do not get rains, we should actually 

 be better off, as they are in the arid regions of 

 the west, if we did not have any rain during the 

 growing season and had a means of providing 

 water when we wanted it. The trouble with 



