Show the land doctor by vivian shearer A lot of folks live long comfortable for table lives without ever giva thought to the wonderful balance and pres cislon which makes life possible on this old ball ot of mud they never seem to realize the catastrophe that would follow the destruction of this just so matching up P of all the threads that make makeup abl the pattern of at existence the narrow limits of temperature that life can tolerate the very small allowable variation ot of pressure and many other precise adjustments apparently designed by the creator tor for mans existence and comfort ar are all pt of vital importance but no morel more so than is the thin film of topsoil top soll without which civilization could not long endure there was old man hank din clin by who spent most of his bis life on his farm in the great plains region lie he did not believe in book learning as he called it said a body could learn more by reading leading the soil boil and the corn tussles and such he was right in a way but he should have koewn that a person has to learn to read first before he can get much good out of the writing before him his land was new when he settled on the rolling prairie the topsoil was deep and for the tint first few years he raised wonderful crops and prospered generally he was energetic and believed in long haid hours I 1 it f he be had used life his head as aa well as hlo his back the time would not have c ome come when his fields field B began to show up in mottled colors and his bis crops would noi not have begun to vary 1 from he heavy avy to thin in the same field it if he had bad been looking ahead and had use his land pop properly the topsoil would not have become thinner with each pas sing year but ther the topsoil did got get thin and his crops began to show the effects of hunger anyone could see that there was something lacking in their diet alfke a malk pen calf that Is raised on milk why I 1 tell you vivian youre youre getting balmy he said to me there aint nothing wrong with that there soil ashes as good bodd as she ever was trouble Is we aint had rains like we used to have n and besides the winds have been hotter and drier the climates tha hanging nging I 1 tell you the climates changing hau glug we all know that there are cycles cy cles of weather but just the same book learning would have leave began to farm his fields had an shown hank that when he first average of about 10 inches of topsoil top soll but that this topsoil bank account of afis his had had dwindled to an average of about five inches more in some spots less in others even at that hank was no exception to mankind in general folks have always been mighty careless with this p precious treasure billions of acres throughout the world that used to be in the prime of health are now sick beyond recovery at least tor for a few thousand years just lecause they were abuse dby owners who w 0 were we re either plain ignorant or whose minds were occupied with thoughts of greed or else by those who may have known better but lust care are |