— 3- 



with decaying plant life — everything from the tiny moss 

 that lives its life and dies, to the giant tree that lies fallen 

 in the forest. This decaying vegetation, together with 

 manures and various fish and animal materials, often ap- 

 plied to the soil, makes up what is called the organic 

 matter of the soil. Then there is the soil moisture and 

 soil atmosphere. This latter differs in several particulars 

 from the air we breathe; soil atmosphere containing more 

 water vapor and less oxygen ; and considerably more nitro- 

 gen and carbon dioxid. 



THE CHAKAOTEK OF THE SOIL. 



If the soil is made up of large rock fragments, we 

 say it is stony. Stony hillsides in many states make the 

 farmer's life miserable. Let the rocks be several degrees 

 finer and we say the soil is gravelly. If finer still then 

 sandy and so on until we have the sticky clay that in rainy 

 weather will fill the wagon wheels almost to the hubs if 

 the road bed has not been covered with gravel. There 

 are many other ways of classifying the different kinds of 

 soil but these lessons are only meant to serve as little 

 guide posts pointing out a few paths that it is hoped will 

 prove interesting enough to lead you farther. 



SOMETHING MOEE ABOUT SOIL COMPOSITION. 



The foods that plants get from the soil are thirteen 

 in number — among which are phosphorus, nitrogen, iron, 

 sulphur, potassium, calcium and several others. There 

 are few soils which do not contain the most of these, but . 

 this does not necessarily mean that the plants grown in 

 these soils will therefore have enough to eat. This is de- 

 pendent on the condition of the soil and the composition 

 of the food elements. 



We could not eat dry flour — yet we live largely on 

 articles of food made from flour. We combine it with 



