eed at this he wastes his
seed and labor.

The layman regards the soil as a platform or anchoring place on which to
set plants. He measures its value by its superficial area without
considering its contents, which is as absurd as to estimate a man's
wealth by the size of his safe. The difference in point of view is well
illustrated by the old story of the city chap who was showing his farmer
uncle the sights of New York. When he took him to Central Park he tried
to astonish him by saying "This land is worth $500,000 an acre." The old
farmer dug his toe into the ground, kicked out a clod, broke it open,
looked at it, spit on it and squeezed it in his hand and then said,
"Don't you believe it; 'tain't worth ten dollars an acre. Mighty poor
soil I call it." Both were right.

[Illustration: Courtesy of American Cyanamid Co.

FIXING NITROGEN BY CALCIUM CARBIDE

A view of the oven room in the plant of the American Cyanamid Company.
The steel cylinders standing in the background are packed with the
carbide and then put into the ovens sunk in the floor. When these are
heated internally by electricity to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit pure
nitrogen is let in and absorbed by the carbide, making cyanamid, which
may be used as a fertilizer or for ammonia.]

[Illustration: Photo by International Film Service

A BARROW FULL OF POTASH SALTS EXTRACTED FROM SIX TONS OF GREEN KELP BY
THE GOVERNMENT CHEMISTS]

[Illustration: NATURE'S SILENT METHOD OF NITROGEN FIXATION

The nodules on the vetch roots contain colonies of bacteria which have
the power of taking the free nitrogen out of the air and putting it in
compounds suitable for plant food.]

The modern agriculturist realizes that the soil is a laboratory for the
production of plant food and he ordinarily takes more pains to provide a
balanced ration for it than he does for his family. Of course the
necessity of feeding the soil has been known ever since man began to
settle down and the ancient methods of maintaining its fertility, though
discovered accidentally and followed blindly, were sound and
efficacious. Virgil, who like Liberty Hyde Bailey was fond of publishing
agricultural bulletins in poetry, wrote two thousand years ago:

But sweet vicissitudes of rest and toil
Make easy labor and renew the soil
Yet sprinkle sordid ashes all around
And load with fatt'ning dung thy fallow soil.

The ashes supplied the potash and the dung the nitrate and phosphate.
Long before