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Show FERTILE SOIL MEANS PROSPERITY I By P. Q. HOLDEN. ') 7 HEN W0 deal the 8011 we are deaIInS wlth the real funda-I' funda-I' VsW mcatal ot agriculture, it takes two things to make a great country I' V V the soU and tQ0 PePlo 1 I We may have a fertile soil, but If we have shiftless, inefficient pe?pIe 1Ivine on it, we are not going to make much out of It We may have ' Country hUmQDlty' but without a Productive soil we cannot make a great Walking over It all our lives, the soil has become of little importance to many of us. Some people think the land we arc tilling today is the same It was a hundred years ago. We do not realize that the soil la constantly changing, chang-ing, just as people arc changing from day to day. The soil is not an inert moss; it is the scene of life and activity. Soil that is inactive is unproductive. Circulation of air and water, absorption of heat, evaporation, decay of plants and soil particles, countless minute organ Isms all these oro the activities of fcrtllo soli. What Fertility Is, The fertility of the land is its power to produce, crops. It is. determined chiefly by threo. things: The toiruro of the soil. Its richness In available plant food. Its moIsturQ, The texture of the soli is Its physical condition, as to being mellow, cloddy jor hard. Plants cannot get a start in hard, lnmpy soil. In addition to mineral matter, all soils contain decayed vegetable or ant-tnal ant-tnal matter. This Is called humus. Humus holds moisture, makes the soil I loose, warm and mel A Bunoh of Soli Bulldote Cattle Are Profitable bo unproductive. Much p and Help Maintain tho Fertility of the Soil. of thlB Bt store of Lt . , , plnt food Is locked up, else it would have leached from the soli or been used up long ago. L. By intolllcnt fanning, a llttlo of It Is made available year after year, ffhe longer plants are grown on any land and plant life returned to the soil l fb rtdier th2 Bo11 becomes. In building the soil, nature has centuries at her 'disposal ; man has but a fow years. He must work rapidly and intelligently, j J3q cannot afford to mako mistakes. 1 Keop Soil Productive. S , Th0 BoU must mado to continuously grow profitable crops. It may bo eerloualy Impaired for the growing of any crop If the humus Is an owed to fj purn out of It. It then becomes leachy and quickly loses its moisture, HLJ Boots and stubblo, green crops and barn manure these supply humua to tho soli. If humua Is to bo maintained In tho soil, wo must rotnto our B ,'crops. We must make tho meadow and tho pasture a part of tho rotation-K. rotation-K. The rootn and tho stubble and manuro applied with one of the crops In tho I 1 frotatlon will supply the land with tho needed vegetablo matter. j Hj It is bettor to feed tho crop to stock and return the manuro to the land J Hj than It to plow the crop under. It is better farm management to do tale, j (becauso the manure we place on the land contains the greater portion of the H fertilizing value of the crops and at the same time the crops havo been cony H parted. Into - meat rda-prodncts. j |