DIVISION II. 
THE SOIL AS RELATED TO VEGETABLE 
PRODUCTION. 
CHAPTER I. 
INTRODUCTORY. 
For the Husbandman the Soil has this paramount im- 
portance, that it is the home of the roots of his crops and 
the exclusive theater of his labors in promoting their 
growth. Through it alone can he influence the amount 
of vegetable production, for the atmosphere, and the light 
and heat of the sun, are altogether beyond his control. 
Agriculture is the culture of the field. The value of the 
field lies in the quality of its soil. No study can have a 
grander material significance than the one which gives us 
a knowledge of the causes of fertility and barrenness, a 
knowledge of the means of economizing the one and over- 
coming the other, a knowledge of those natural laws 
which enable the farmer so to modify and manage his soil 
that all the deficiencies of the atmosphere or the vicissi- 
tudes of climate cannot deprive him of a suitable reward 
for his exertions. 
The atmosphere and all extra-terrestrial influences that 
affect the growth of plants are indeed in themselves 
beyond our control. We cannot modify them in kind or 
amount; but we can influence their subserviency to our 
purposes through the medium of the soil by a proper un- 
derstanding of the characters of the latter. 
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