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Annual Be port of the 
contact with them, the roots then will he supplied. If you do but 
one thing, do this, and your crops will pay you well for doing it. 
There is in the atmosphere, from which the plants get the largest 
portion of their food, an abundance of food and the very things 
which the plants are always in need of—the manure and substance 
which is furnished by the decomposition of the soil. 
What we want in our tillage is to put the soil just in that condi¬ 
tion that it can take advantage of the means which nature affords 
it, and let decomposition he gradually going on by the oxidation of 
the air, and the solvent power of the natural water that belongs 
there and which is largely charged with carbonic acid. 
In regard to the disposal of water—getting rid of it when it is too 
abundant. Water falls now upon our soils. Our rains usually come 
in the summer time, very heavy, at long intervals between them, 
and exceedingly heavy rains, so heavy that their washing power 
over the soil is very great, and we have about 10 inches of this sur¬ 
face soil through which this water can pass, and that amount of soil 
may absorb a certain per cent, of water and the remainder flows 
over the surface and washes away the most valuable portion of the 
soil. 
The whole valley of the Mississippi has ever proved very good 
along the river bank, as it flowed and washed from other places; 
so when getting at the bottoms of our hills, where little rills have 
run down, we have a larger portion of the soil, the best part, 
carried away from the high lands. Now if the water can pass off 
through the soil rather than over it, then we can take advantage 
of this absorptive power of the soil, and the manure element 
will be left in it, and also, that will remain which is brought there 
from the water falling upon it, so that there is no view of the sub¬ 
ject but that we see that deeper culture and evener stirring of the 
soil, and stirring it better, does more for the good of crops than 
anything else; and I would add, draining it—under draining—is 
a means of better culture. 
Col. Warker. I wish to ask whether the experiments upon the 
University Farm have shown these results? 
Professor Daniells. I think the results have been exactly as I 
have stated here. 
Mr. J. W. Wood. We are told that the benefit of manure is not 
measured by the amount of plant food that is added to the soil, but 
rather that it assists certain chemical processes. 
