Suppose that for several
successive years we grow wheat upon a field with an average crop of
twenty-five bushels to the acre. This amount of grain with its straw will
take from the soil about fifty-one pounds of ammonia annually, and when
the nitrogen (which is the main element of ammonia) gives out, the wheat
will fail, although other plant food may be present in abundance. This is
one reason why dairy farms from which all the milk is sold often grow
poor. Milk is exceedingly rich in nitrogen, and through the milk the farm
is depleted of this essential element faster than it is replaced by
fertilizers. A man may thus be virtually selling his farm, or that which
gives it value, without knowing it."
"But what's a man to do?" asked the squire, with a look of helpless
perplexity. "How is one to know when his land needs nitrogen or ammonia
and all the other kinds of plant food, as you call it, and how must he go
to work to get and apply it?"
"You are asking large questions, squire," Webb replied, with a quiet
smile. "In the course of a year you decide a number of legal questions,
and I suppose read books, consult authorities, and use considerable
judgment. It certainly never would do for people to settle these
questions at hap-hazard or according to their own individual notions.
Their decisions might be reversed. Whatever the courts may do, Nature is
certain to reverse our decisions and bring to naught our action unless we
comply with her laws and requirements.
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