Show GARDENERS LOVE OF SOIL every agriculturist worthy the name corredera Corr its welfare as identa cal with his own every real gardener and true coun tryman loves the soil the smell of it when turned over in the eun the feel of it under foot its welfare la his own be loves to patch up the thin places blast out rocks deepen and enrich it the soil Is our priceless heritage from geologic time it Is the insoluble real due from the crumbling of the rock on its maintenance depends the pros of the race of man and how we have misused and neg lecter our soil the earth has been plowed down the hill against the fences where ft is allowed to grow brush leaving the hillside and ridges bare it has been washed away and let choke up the rivers and harbors with the finest and fattest of its substance it has been burned over and its fertility wasted in many other ways my father john burroughs like the true countryman that he Is al ways loved indeed almost worshiped the soil lie has bad more real fun and satisfaction in late years in am proving pieces of land than in any thing else last summer he found huge delight in clearing up a stony broken pasture blowing out the rocks and building a fence with them level ing off the ground and getting it ready tor the plow saying fifty years and more ago my ta aber wanted to clear this field and make a meadow of it now I 1 am able to do it what a fine deep soil it haal lie would pick up a handful and rub it between hla fingers or thrust the crowbar down into it to show the depth not to clear away any more forest but to build up and improve some of the land already cleared that Is truly an occupation worthy of any man john burroughs in the crafts man |