Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1873-04-25
EEOIv. PL.F.N'TS GROW.

We ought to have and shall have one day,
not only experimental farms, but maps of
every district, showing its geographical,
. typographical geological, floral, and en-
Genealogical characteristics, with an analysis
of its minerals and vegetables, so that every
farmer may work understandingly and
know what he may reasonably expect
Then the fertility Of the soil can be kept up
more easily than we now believe, with ma
terials ready at hand. Air furnishes the
chief food of all organic bodies. The giant
trees which grow around us do not suck
up the soil and leave hole. The soil re-
mains level around them, if they do not
even raise it up by the roots. The ashes of
the tree represent all the matter contained
in it which was not drawn from the air.
Two hundred pounds of earth were once
dried in an oven, then put into an earth
ern vessel, moistened with water, and
willow tree weighing five pounds plant
ed therein. For five years that earth re-
ceived nothing but pure water; the tree
grew and flourished, and after that time
was removed and found to weigh 1863
pounds and three ounces, excluding the
leaves which had fallen from it every Au-
tumn. The earth dried and weighed, was
found to have lost but two ounces; and
thus 1874 pounds and over of wood, bark
roots, &C., was certainly produced from but
one possible source-the air.
Exhausted soils are rapidly restored by
blowing under clover. The fertilizing
properties of the clover come from the at
mosphere largely. 1t drinks in the gases
of the atmosphere. Its roots run all through
the surface of the soil, and often several
feet down into it. The roots carry air with
them wherever they CO. This air operates
on the soil, rendering its ingredients So
luble and fitting them for plant food.
Hence, when we pillow a crop of clover be-
meath the surface, or allow it to rot down
upon it, we cause the laws of nature to OPP
crate which have been at work since the
earth was created and which have produce
ed all the fertilizng material on its surface.
We aid in causing the soil and the atmos-
phere to combine so as to furnish food for
crops.
There must have been a time when the
face Of the earth was utterly bare. The in
tense heat expelled all the moisture and
caused it to surround the earth with dense
cloud of steam. As the earth cooled, the
clouds condensed and the surface was COW
cred with water everywhere, while the
surface was smooth and even. But as the
earth cooled and sbrank, the surface be-
came uneven, here elevated into ridges
and there depressed into hollows. The
waters gathered into the depressions, which
became the beds of the oceans, and the ele-
waited parts became the continents. From
that time forward, heat and cold, rain and
wind, have been active in softening and
pulverizing the earth's surface the atmos-
phere has mingled with its particles and
formed food for plants, and these have
formed food for animals and for man. We
can neither make nor destroy particle of
matter, but we can change its form and
condition, and with the help of nature
make it fit for food of plants.
All food plants must be in a soluble
form, so fine that it will dissolve readily;
if not, it has not, nor never can have, any
practical valne. All the fertilizing material
there may DE in the soil, or that may be
put into it, if it is not soluble, will be use
iSSS lOi Pldhtoi I4dllp NdIIOt NC leu uDOu
it. They cannot digest it. 1t is so with
our own food. Ift be not digestible it can
do us no good we starve TO death in the
midst of plenty. The best pulverized soil,
therefore, other things being equal, will
produce the best crops. Some believe that
fertility may be kept up by the pulveriza-
ton alone, without any manure. The prin-
ciple may be correct, and locality might
be made to produce continually certain
crops TO which it is naturally apapted by
simply reducing the soil to powder and
subjecting it to the influence of air, rain
and light. But in the arrangement of the
earth's surface different layers and depos-
its are presented to our view. In one place
limestone, in another granite, in another
chalk, States, and so on. Each of these diff
fers from the Others and one will not fur
nish food for all varieties of plants. When
we therefore desire to grow crops which
are not natural to the soil of our farms, no
matter with what care we prepare the
ground, if we do not add the ingredient
which the soil lacks, the crop will fail.
This is the whole philosophy of manuring.
We must know what our soil lacks, what
the crops require, and then supply the
needed ingredients in properly soluble
condition. If we have in our soil all that
is needed, there is waste and folly in ma
nuring. There is more too in cultivation
than in manurng. If the soil is turned up
to the light and air gradually, knocked to
pieces, reduced to powder, allowed to
freeze and thaw, and aerate, in time it will
grow paying crop. Undertaking will
materially help clay soil slowly at first,
but proftably in the end. This pulveriz-
ing process is the true one it etherealizos
and spiritualizes matter and makes it al
most instinct with life.-New York Times.