Soil

“ The food on which they have been brought up has been gathered from the soil—the grass, the hay, the root crops, the linseed, the barley, the oats. And how much intellect, from the earliest dawn of civilisation, has been lavished upon the soil!—how many branches of knowledge are at this moment uniting their strength to develop its latent capabilities! Geology yields the raw materials upon which, in after ages, the toils of the husbandman are expended. ”

“ CHAPTER III SOILS, MANURES AND FERTILIZERS The soil must furnish the whole foundation of plant life. For centuries those who have grown things have realized the vital importance of having the soil rich or well supplied with plant food; and if this is important in growing plants in the field or flower garden, where each vegetable or flower has from one to several cubic feet of earth in which to grow, how imperative it is to have rich soil in a pot or plant box where each plant may have but a few cubic inches! ”

“ Nature strews her nuts and flowers broadcast, and never collects them into heaps. This was the soil it grew in, and this the hour it bloomed in; if sun, wind, and rain came here to cherish and expand the flower, shall not we come here to pluck it? ”

“ What is soil? It is the surface layer of the earth's crust, sometimes too shallow on the rocks to plough, sometimes much deeper. Under deep soil lies the "subsoil," usually hard and rarely ploughed.
What is soil made of? Ground rock materials and decayed remains of animal and plant life. By slow decay the soil becomes rich food for the growing [Pg 59] of new plants. Wild land grows up to weeds and finally to forests. The soil in fields and gardens is cultivated to make it fertile. Plants take fertility from the soil. To maintain the same richness, plant food must be put back into the soil. ”

“ The soil is the greatest of our natural resources. We may almost say that it is greater than all the others combined, for from it comes all of our food; a large part of it directly as plants which grow in the soil and which we eat in the form of roots, leaves, grains, berries, fruits, and nuts; and a part of it indirectly as animals, which have received their food supply from the plants. ”

“ Definitions.—The term soil, in its broadest sense, is used to designate that portion of the surface of the earth which has resulted from the disintegration of rocks and the decay of plants and animals, and which is suited, under proper conditions of moisture and temperature, to the growth of plants. It consists, therefore, chiefly of mineral substances, together with some products of organic life, and of certain living organisms whose activity may influence vegetable growth either favorably or otherwise. ”

“ When you strike your spade down into the earth and lay bare a section of the soil this is what you see: on top is the plant growth, the soil beneath this, dark in texture and about our locality of a depth of from six to eight inches. ”

“ Farmers and gardeners throughout the spring, summer and autumn, are busy ploughing or digging, hoeing or in other ways cultivating the soil. Unless all this is well done the soil fails to produce much; the sluggard's garden has always been a by-word and a reproach. In trying to understand why they do it we must remember that plant roots need water, warmth and air; if the soil is too compact or if there is too much water the plant suffers, as we have seen.
Fig. ”

“ Virgin soil contains all these soil-derived elements in available form and in sufficient quantities for plant growth, and it has the power to absorb the elements which are derived from the air, but our short sighted methods of soil cultivation, or robbery, deplete the soil of some of its elements faster than it can convert them into available food for the plants. ”

“ I have great faith in the benefits of thorough tillage—or, in other words, of breaking up, pulverizing, and exposing the soil to the decomposing action of the atmosphere. I look upon a good, strong soil as a kind of storehouse of plant-food. ”

“ The soil, if required, may be meliorated, by covering or mixing it with rich soil taken from distant places, and the same be mouldered to fine dust, levelled, sifted from all roots, weeds and stones, and sowed and planted in the most beautiful order and symmetry, with fruit trees and vegetables of every kind that may stand the climate. ”

“ In the soil itself reside all the constituent elements of all vegetation in their infinite variety. You may thoughtlessly answer, that in order to produce any species of vegetation used for table consumption, the seed or germ must first be sown in the soil beneath the surface, but you forget that this process is but the result of civilization and art, and that originally, that is before you learned how to obtain and use seed, the products sprang of themselves and apparently spontaneously from the earth. ”

“ The farmer, when he tills the soil, deals with countless numbers of individual soil grains, far surpassing the understanding of the human mind. It is the immense number of constituent soil particles that gives to the soil many of its most valuable properties.
It must be remembered that no natural soil is made up of particles all of which are of the same size; all sizes, from the coarsest sand to the finest clay, are usually present. ”

“ The soil supplies almost every known need. We build our homes from the trees of the forest; combined with the iron that comes from the soil they furnish our fuel, our ships, our cars, our furniture, and countless other things. Our clothing is made from the cotton or flax which grows from the soil, the wool from the sheep that feed on the pastures, or from the silk-worms that feed on leaves. ”

“ The soil is a deep black mould, evidently composed of decayed vegetables, and so loose that it sinks under you at every step; and this may be the reason why we meet with so many large trees as we do, blown down by the wind, even in the thickest part of the woods. ”

“ Nature has gifted the soil in a remarkable degree with vegetable and mineral wealth, has bestowed upon it an exterior suited to every taste, and to the requirements of all, and has intersected it with rivers which are available to every species of industry, and for unlimited commercial transactions, embracing every production of the temperate zone within its northern and southern boundaries. ”

“ It is soil in which the sand and clay are in proper proportions, so that neither greatly predominate, and usually dark in color, from cultivation and enrichment. Such a soil, even to the untrained eye, just naturally looks as if it would grow things. It is remarkable how quickly the whole physical appearance of a piece of well cultivated ground will change. ”

“ Loss of Plant-food.—The soil is composed chiefly of material that never will enter into the structure of plants, but that serves us by affording a congenial place for plant-roots. It anchors the plants, holds moisture for them, and offers opportunity for all the processes necessary to the preparation of plant-food and to its use. ”

“ Soil and subsoil from a hole dug in the garden. Clay. Six tripods and bunsen burners or spirit lamps [2] . Six crucibles or tin lids and pipe-clay triangles [2] . Twelve glass jars or gas cylinders [4] . Six beakers [2] [1] .
If we talk to a farmer or a gardener about soils he will say that there are several kinds of soil; clay soils, gravel soils, peat soils, chalk soils, and so on, and we may discover this for ourselves if we make some rambles in the country and take careful notice of the ground about us, particularly if we can leave the road and walk on the footpaths across the fields. ”

“ If you had very magnifying eyes and could see things so enlarged that these little creatures seemed to {62} you to be an inch long, and if you looked down into the soil, it would seem to you to be an extraordinarily wonderful place. The little grains of soil would look like great rocks and on them you would see creatures of all shapes and sizes moving about, and feeding on whatever was suitable to them, some being destroyed by others very much larger than themselves, some apparently dead or asleep, yet waking up whenever it becomes warmer or there was a little more moisture. ”

“ Trees grow in the soil. It is important to know something of the origin of soils and their properties and values, and of the principal soil types, with special reference to their effect upon plant distribution and welfare. The origin, nature, value, and conservation of humus, that most essential ingredient of the forest floor; the field methods of mapping soil types; the rock types most important in their relation to soils, how they are made up, how they make soil, and where they occur—something should be learned of all this. ”

“ The Soil.—The type of soil is a highly important factor in determining upon location; also important is its crop-producing capacity. For all general purposes, a soil which is loamy in texture is desirable. Types to be avoided are the extremes of clay and sand. ”

“ For those products of the soil are wonderfully improved in flavour by the fertility of the district which produces them, the moistness of the climate, the mildness of the winds, the warmth of the sun, and the richness of the soil. But in the case of man, the soul enters the tenement of the body from without. ”

“ The soil, wherever a vegetable mould is discoverable, is light, and favourable to any kind of culture; but it has apparently been brought there for the purpose, as the natural soil seems [6] wholly unfit for cultivation, being throughout either sand or stone. ”

“ Every type of real soil contains all the elements of plant growth. This plant food results from a breaking down of soil particles and the setting free of chemical elements which, either singly or in combination, serve as food for plants. ”

“ We have seen that the soil particles vary in size and that for the best development of the plant the particles of the soil must be so arranged that the delicate rootlets can readily push their way about in search of food, or, in other words, that the soil must have a certain texture. ”

“ We may say, indeed, that, except in alluvial plains, where the soil grows by flood-made additions to its upper surface, no field tilled in grain can without exceeding care remain usable for a century. ”

“ The object of loosening the soil is to admit roots to a sufficient depth to hold the plant in its position—to obtain the nutriment necessary to its growth—to receive moisture from the lower portions of the soil—and, if it be a bulb, tuber, or tap, to assume the form requisite for its largest development. ”

“ It is customary to regard the soil, between the particles of which the root-hairs of plants are distributed, as if it were merely a dead matrix of smaller or larger pieces of rock, such as sand, gravel, stones, etc., and organic remains, such as bits of wood, leaves, bones, etc., with water and air in their interstices. As matter of fact, however, soil is a much more complex body than was suspected until comparatively recent times. ”

“ Scientists estimate that it takes nature ten thousand years to create a foot of soil. This heritage of ages, though so valuable and so slowly created, may speedily be washed away and lost. Forests help to anchor it and to hold it in productive places. Every tree stands upon an inverted basket of roots and rootlets. Rains may come and rains may go, but these roots hold the soil in place. The soil of forest-covered hillsides is reinforced and anchored with a webwork of the roots and rootlets of the forest. ”

“ But you have practically but one soil to deal with, a true limestone soil of high fertility, which has received considerable accessions from silicious rocks. Your bottom lands do not differ materially from the upland, except that the former have received considerable vegetable matter, which the latter have lost. For the lowlands, corn, grass, and potatoes are the best crops; for the highlands, the small grains, sorghum, beans, etc. ”

“ He further informs us, the soil is an argillaceous soil, mellowed with sands and pebbles, underlaid with schistose and calcareous rocks, clothed with an open growth of oaks and hickories, the ridges covered with walnut, ash, beech, and maple, while the valleys are first rate corn land, diversified with limpid lakes, grassy prairies and pebbly bottomed brooks. ”

“ A soil, in fact, very similar to that which produces pine and scrub-oak, while on the plains it is darker, but containing a still greater proportion of vegetable matter, enriched by sewerage but invariably well underdrained by natural declivities. ”

“ In walking over the field, the soil will be found to be hard and compact. The surface may be covered with growing plants, for if the seeds which have been put into the soil by the farmer have not germinated and the plants made growth, nature has quickly come to the rescue and filled the soil with other plants which we commonly call weeds. It is nature's plan to keep the soil covered with growing plants, and from nature we should learn a lesson. ”

“ Fertile soil, level plains, easy passage across the mountains, coal, iron, and other metals imbedded in the rocks, and a stimulating climate, all shower their blessings upon man. ”

“ Soil covers the land as thin skin covers an apple or as a thin coat of butter covers bread, and it holds more or less plant-food. When men erect school buildings and afterwards grade the ground they usually turn a part of the soil upside down. ”

“ Soil in some form or other is necessary to the healthy existence of all plants; and we know that the nature of the soil varies with that of the plants growing in it, or, in other words, certain soils are necessary to certain plants, whether in a state of nature or cultivated in gardens. ”