The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-12-11
OPENING DAY
OF INSTITUTE
Inclement Weather Cuts
Down Attendance This
Morning.
A. A.HUBE R TALKS ABOUT SOIL
Too Many Farmers Take
Away Much and Return
Nothing to Soil.
A. A.HUBE R TALKS ABOUT SOIL
Unless Crops Arc Rotated Insects That
Prey ON Crops Increase Rapidly.
E. n. Uncapher Says state should
Build Good Roads.

J The dnclement weather made the
/ attendance mt the opening exercises
OF the Marion County Farmers ins,i-
tute which Is in session at the COM
mon pleas court room. very limited.
/ Not moro than so men and women
were present at the opening at 10
O'Clock, but the attendance increased
! toward noon. The Williamson Sisters
, quartet, which is to furnish the mu-
sic for the two days of the institute.
was delayed in reaching Marion and
/ its opening song was omitted.
With T. e. Andrews Of Marion. pre-
siding, the opening Of the program
began with a talk on "The Soil-Our
Obligation to It," by A. A. Huber. OF
Hicksville. Mr. Huber is a prominent
| farmer of Defiance county, and was
formerly member of the state lcgA
islature. He began by saying:
"The prosperity of the land depends
on the soil. 1t is the cornerstone Of
agriculture, and agriculture i'm its
turn, is the cornerstone Of everything
else. The question which we shall
first consider is what is the soil2
Biologists tell us that the world was
"a molten mass when it was created.
1t gradually solldihed and became
rock. This rock Will not grow plants
in the solldihed form, it must first De
pulverized. For this purpose nature
supplies the agencies which have
made our soil.
There ~rc various uses of the soil
which we must consider. It Is a.
a,ore-house for moisture, and for
plant food, IL is a laboratory for bac-
terra and It is place for the roots
OF plants to grow. It is also a regu-
lator OF the earth's temperature
There are six kinds Of soil: clay
gravel chalk. sand. loam ana peat
In regard to the fertility Of the soil
when the world was first created
nature left everything on the earth
which 1t produced. Plants and veg
etables were allowed to decay where
they sprang up. But when man came,
he converted all this INFO merchan-
disc and sold 1t for his own gain He
takes everything away, and gives
nothing back TO the soil. There are
141,00O acres OF land in Ohio, which
have been abandoned because the
land IL worn out. In New York
one-third OF the farms have been
abandoned because there is no fertil-
ity in the soil.
I'VE crticise the great lumber
barons of the northwest because they
laid waste and desolate the great
forests. But, when we como home
to our own farmers, who are laying
bare their fields and mining their
resources, the loss Is as great, pro-
portionately. This soil OF ours IL
like a bank account, If you keep
drawing out of 1t all the time, and
don't put anything back, there'll come
a day when the cashier of the bank
Is going to fail to respond to your
request. The farm says: You feed
me and I'll feed you. There are ccr-
tain ingredients In the sold which are
necessary TO tho growth of produce
If one of these II lacking your
ground viii be useless for certain
CROPS.
1--WE are under great obligations to
the soil. and one of these obligations
is drainage. There are two kinds of
water. The free kind, like that we
are having today, and which soaks IN
TO the ground and runs around
through the little particles of soil
Now, tho roots of plants can't grow
in moist, soaked soil. It must be
drainod. Another kind Of water In
the soil is called capillary moisture
This clings to all the little particles
of soil and excludes the air.
another reason we must drain the
soil Is TO change the temperature. The
rays OF the sun are entirely CON
sumed in drying up an deyaporating
this superuous moisture, and II
doesn't warm the earth sufficiently
for vegetation. The tillage Of the
soil, which is more clearly stated as