His soil may not be lacking now, but his crops
are."
"It is possible that there are quacks among land doctors, as you call
them, as well as among doctors of medicine", remarked Dr. Marvin.
"Or doctors of theology," added the minister.
"I looked into the Walters experiment somewhat carefully," Webb resumed,
"and the causes of his failure were apparent to any one who has given a
little study to the nature of soils and plant food. Some of his land
needs draining. The ground is sour and cold from stagnant water beneath
the surface, and the plant food which Nature originally placed in it is
inert and in no condition to be used. Nearly all of his uplands have been
depleted of organic or vegetable matter. He did not put into the soil all
that the plants needed, and the fact that his crops were poor proves it.
The materials he used may have been adulterated, or not in a form which
the plants could, assimilate at the time. Give Nature a soil in the right
mechanical condition--that is, light, mellow, moist, but not wet, and
containing the essential elements of a crop--and she will produce it
unless the season is so adverse that it cannot grow. I do not see how one
can hope to be successful unless he studies Nature's methods and learns
her needs, adapting his labor to the former, and supplying the latter.
For instance, nitrogen in the form of ammonia is so essential to our
crops that without it they could never come to maturity were all the
other elements of plant food present in excess.
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