22 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE CARE OF THE SOIL. 

 By H£E. P. Hodsoll, F.C.S., M.S.E.A.C. 



[Read November 19, 1918 ; Mr. A. C. Bartlett in the Chair.] 



The title of this article may seem strange to some, who will perhaps 

 regard the use of the word " care " as misplaced in this relation. 

 Surely, they will say, the soil can take care of itself. It has done so, 

 for how many years ? probably few of us would like to hazard a guess. 

 It has been subject to great heat and intense cold, has suffered vast 

 upheavals and convulsions and all sorts of marvellous changes, and 

 yet in most parts of the world produces vegetation and crops of some 

 sort or other, with or without human assistance. 



This is all true in a sense, and yet the title is chosen advisedly, and 

 we will endeavour to show that from the agricultural and horticultural 

 point of view the word is not misused. 



The reason for the choice of this title is that in journeying about 

 the country one cannot but be struck by the lack of care, in the true 

 meaning of the word, that the soil receives at the hands of some of its 

 cultivators. So many regard it merely as a medium in which their 

 crops grow. They cultivate to a greater or less extent to get a tilth 

 in which to place the seed or young plants, or to produce conditions 

 that they know by experience will benefit their crop. They manure 

 it for the same reason, always with their eye on the crop and with little 

 or no consideration for the soil. 



This is all perfectly right as far as it goes— the crop is of course 

 the ultimate object of all cultivation, and we have nothing to say 

 against every consideration being given it ; on the contrary, it is hoped 

 in the near future to contribute a companion article to this on the 

 " Care of the Plant." But the point it is desired to bring home is 

 that the soil also requires attention — care — for its own sake ; in fact, 

 it should be the cultivator's first consideration. 



The following is an instance of the lack of appreciation shown 

 by many growers of the importance and value of the soil they are 

 cultivating. Not long ago a sample of soil was received from a big 

 grower for analysis, with an accompanying letter saying : " I am sending 

 you some of the ' dirt ' from my farm. I cannot get a decent crop on it , 

 and I do not know what is the matter wi; : i it. Please analyse it and 

 tell me what I am to do." One was struck at the time by the words 

 used by this man in referring to " Mother Earth " — the soil he was 

 cultivating — the raw material of his industry — and immediately 

 suspected that this grower would not understand the phrase " the 

 care of the soil." 



Hall opens his well-known work on the soil with these words : " The 



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