I 
386 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
June 1 
Part VI. 
We have seen now that humus, or 
organ c matter, mixed through the soil, 
acts to give it a darker color, and to open 
it or bind it and thus provide a storage 
place for water. The decay of this 
humus also furnishes carbonic acid, 
which, as we have seen, helps dissolve 
the fertility in the soil particles. We 
shall not consider the nitrogen in this 
organic matter now. At present, we 
wish to see how the humus affects the 
structure of the soil. 
We cannot repeat too often that the 
fertility of a soil is measured by its 
power to yield a constant water supply. 
A plant is not like an animal, which 
can range over a wide tract of land after 
a drink. The plant must have its water 
close at hand—and its food, too, since 
all its nourishment is taken in the form 
of a solution. It is evident that the 
plant cannot depend on rainfall alone 
for its water supply, since there are 
often weeks at a time when no water 
falls. It is the water stored up in the 
soil, that must nourish the plant. It is 
really more important to control the 
movement of that water in the soil, than 
it is to try to hold the rain at the surface ; 
thus we see how necessary it is to regu¬ 
late the structure of the soil and provide 
the proper spaces for the water to flow 
up or down. 
You have all noticed the oil rising in 
a wick to supply the flame of the lamp. 
It is a common expression that the ‘ ‘ flame 
sucks up the oil. ” As the oil at the top 
is burned and passes off, other oil passes 
up to take its place, and so on until the 
lamp is emptied. Now the soil acts very 
much like the wick to bring the water 
up from the lower strata where it sxmk 
after the rain. The evaporation of water 
from the surface soil into the drier air, 
is like the flame of the lamp “ sucking 
up the oil”, for it dries the surface, and 
up comes more water to moisten the dried 
space. You know that in a lamp, one 
wick may work better than another, and 
that “ti*imming” or cutting off the 
blackened upper edge of the wick, will 
give a better flame. In just the same 
way, by drainage, plowing in vegetable 
matter, and compacting or loosening the 
surface, we can regulate this upward ox- 
downward flow of water. In a lamp, 
the object is to make the wick lift all 
the oil it can, and thus obtain a bright 
light; so we “ trim ” off the charred 
upper end, and thus secui-e an easier 
flow, since thei-e is no obstruction to the 
fibei-s of the wick. As we shall see later 
on, in cultivation we are to do the exact 
reverse of this. We do not wish to have 
the moisture come to the surface and 
evaporate, but we wish it to rise where 
the plant roots can reach it, and there 
stop. By scratching with the cultivator 
two or three inches of loose earth at the 
surface, we produce something of the 
same condition that exists in an uutriin- 
med lamp wick, where the oil climbs 
easily to the chai-red rim, and thei-e 
stops—feeding the flame but slowly. In 
a wet time, or where there is too much 
water in the soil, we would not cultivate, 
but would rather encourage the water to 
pass off. In planting small seeds in dry 
earth, we naturally pack the surface 
over them. That is like trimming the 
w ick—for it brings the water to the sur¬ 
face by so changing the structure of the 
soil that the moisture rises easier and 
quicker. To put a heavy mulch on the 
top of the soil, is much like cultivating 
the surface or charring the end of the 
wick, because it prevents evapoi-ation by 
changing the mechanical structure of 
the surface, and making it harder for 
the water to pass away into the dx-ierair. 
All this movement of water, and the 
operations taken to regulate it, are 
founded on certain fixed laws that gov¬ 
ern what is known as capillary power or 
force, which, as most of you have ob¬ 
served, causes water to rise to some 
height in small tubes, or even to show a 
slight rise against the sides of a large 
vessel. This force is really a surface 
tension or strain which causes the water 
to contract as much as possible, and 
thus continually forces it on to di-ier 
surfaces that are put in contact with it. 
The two laws regarding this force that 
are of most importance to us in treating 
the soil, are, 1, that it shows itself only 
between bodies of different degrees of 
moisture. In the soil, for example, this 
movement would be from the moist to 
the dry portions; 2, the smaller and 
more uniform the spaces in the soil be¬ 
tween the particles, the more rapid will 
be the rise or fall of water. Thus we 
see how cultivating the upper surface 
may regulate this flow, since by stirring 
the top soil we change its structui-e, and 
break up the connecting passages which 
may have run like tubes from the sur¬ 
face far down into the soil. 
For example, take two cubic feet of 
soil, one wet to saturation, and the other 
but slightly moist. Put the two together. 
The capillary power or tension on the 
surface of the water in the wet soil, 
would force it to climb and spread all 
through the dry soil until the whole two 
feet were about equally moist. Now at 
the surface of the soil during the grow¬ 
ing season, there is a constant tendency 
to draw away the moisture into the air, 
just as the flame in the lamp sucks the oil 
through the wick. When the air is drier 
than the soil, of course it attracts the 
moisture just as dry soil attracts it 
fx-om wet. Plants, too, in the process of 
growing, throw off through their leaves 
vast quantities of moisture which they 
took from the soil through their roots. 
We shall explain about this when we 
come to tell about the growth of plants. 
A single corn plant may, during its 
period of growth, throw off, much as we 
exhale our breath, nearly 40 times its 
weight of water. So you see here is 
this constant loss of moisture from the 
upper surface of the soil, and we can 
now see plainly that the way to provide 
it is to make use of this capillary power 
of the water to climb up and moisten 
the dried out portion. The thing for us 
to do is to treat the soil i*ight, just as we 
would care for the wick in our lamp, if 
we desii-ed a good light. 
We don’t put a piece of calico in the 
lamp, and expect good results. The best 
wick is thick and heavy, with soft fibei-s 
for the oil to climb on, yet packed close 
enough together to give a perfect flow. 
The calico might represent a coarse, 
sandy soil, with wide spaces between the 
particles. The thick, heavy wick might 
represent a well-dx-ained clay soil with, 
say, 10 per cent of well-decayed vege¬ 
table matter scattered all through it. 
In all the grades between sand and clay, 
fi-om “sandy loam” up, the soil would be 
a better reservoir for water, and conse¬ 
quently more fertile, as the particles 
were ground up finer, yet separated 
properly by the right amount of well- 
decayed oi-ganic matter. 
The trouble with the coarse sand is 
that the spaces between the soil parti¬ 
cles are so large that the capillary force 
cannot woi*k. Water does not climb up 
the sides of a barrel, but if you divide 
the area of that barrel into a million 
little tubes, that same water would 
climb through them several feet. Care¬ 
ful experiments with different soils to 
test this capacity for water movement, 
showed that pure clays are the best 
“water wicks,” with pure vegetable 
matter close to them, and the pure sands 
worst of all. While pure clay may 
cause the more water to rise, this very 
fact may be against it, since it may con¬ 
tain so much water as to be cold and 
sour. By mixing organic matter through 
it, we do not much injure its capacity 
for lifting water, while we do loosen it 
up, and permit the air to enter and dry 
out any surplus moisture. The word 
“loam” is often used in describing a soil 
as “clay loam” or “sandy loam,” etc. 
As generally used, it seems to indicate, 
in a rough way, how much clay and or¬ 
ganic matter is mixed with sand to 
make the soil. A “loamy” soil would 
contain about 60 per cent of sand, 30 of 
clay, and 10 of organic matter, and 
would be called “clay loam”, “sandy 
loam ”, etc., as the percentage of clay 
increased or diminished. 
First, let us see what can be done to a 
light soil to make it more productive. In 
a general way, we must add plant food 
in some soluble form, and so change 
the structure of the soil that it will lift 
and retain water better. Of course it is 
not practicable to carry fine clay, and 
add it to the sand, though this was form¬ 
erly done on high-priced land in Europe. 
The clay was burned so that it fell to a 
fine powder, and this was scattered over 
the soil and harrowed in. It gave good 
results, as we would naturally expect, 
because it helped to close up the spaces 
in the soil, and thus assist the capillary 
force to lift water for the plants. The 
use of marl may give similar results, and 
very likely some of the great benefits 
claimed from the use of marl, are due to 
this action rather than to the supply of 
actual plant-food. Lime, salt, plaster, 
wood ashes and the potash salts, increase 
the ability of the soil to draw up water. 
In talking about fertilizers, we saw what 
the action of lime is. Wood ashes are 
composed largely of lime and, therefore, 
give much the same action. But the use 
of oi-ganic matter in plowing under a 
green crop, affords the most practical 
way of improving the sand. Yet, the 
wrong use of large quantities of organic 
matter might, in a dx-y season, injure the 
crop rather than help it, as the mass of 
organic matter might be so loosely 
placed as to dry, or even “burn” out, 
the soil by giving the hot air even freer 
access than it had before. Next week we 
expect to give some practical illustra¬ 
tions of the value of marl and green 
manure for improving the structure of 
the soil. 
THE STUDY 
— of the action of 
medicines, or vegeta¬ 
ble compounds, upon 
the stomach, and tests 
in many hundreds 
of cases, long ago 
convinced Doctor 
R. V. Pierce, 
Chief Consulting 
Physician to the Invalids’ Hotel and Surg¬ 
ical Institute, Buffalo, N. Y., that all cases 
of Indigestion, Dyspepsia and Liver Com¬ 
plaint could be cured permanently if the 
right treatment were given. In support of 
his belief that he had discovered an altera¬ 
tive extract which he called “Golden Med¬ 
ical Discovery,” that would cure these dis¬ 
eases, he collected from all parts of the 
country the evidence of those who had 
used his medicine, and he has asked the 
public to investigate for themselves, as he 
would be glad to furnish the names and 
addresses of thousands of people who have 
used Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discov¬ 
ery. All interested should send for a little 
medical treatise on Dyspepsia, Chronic Di¬ 
arrhea, “Liver Complaint,” Biliousness, 
Constipation and Piles, published by the 
World’s Dispensary Medical Association, 
Buffalo, N. Y., and mailed on receipt of six 
cents in one-cent stamps. This book also 
contains the photographs and testimony of 
many persons who have suffered from dis¬ 
eases of the digestive organs. 
INDIGESTION; SEVERE PAIN IN STOMACH. 
Thomas Fletcher, of Clifton Station, Fair¬ 
fax Co., Fa., writes: 
“ I suffered the terri¬ 
ble tortures for ten 
years with what your 
Dr. Pierce’s Common 
Sense Medical Advis¬ 
er describes as ‘Gas- 
tralgia’ (pain in stom¬ 
ach). I employed our 
home-doctor —took y 2 
dozen bottles of sarsa- 
E arilla with no bene- 
t; then I took one- 
half dozen bottles of a 
celery compound with¬ 
out any benefit; then 
eight bottles of iron 
tonic, yet I was no bet¬ 
ter; this was in 1889 . 
I then took six bottles 
_ __of Dr. Pierce’s Golden 
Thos. Fletcher, Esq. Medical Discovery, 
which made a new man of me. I am now fifty- 
two years old. and for the past five years I have 
worked very hard on my farm. It is impossible 
for me to say too much for the ‘ Golden Medical 
Discovery.’" 
mwt totw ———9 
A Mountain | 
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