e in any one place. But Nature has collected a
part of them in veins in the rocks. We sink shafts upon these veins and
mine the ores. It will be a long time before we shall have mined all
there is of these minerals. Because they are so hard to get we are not
likely to waste them. But it is quite certain that there is a limit to
the supply of mineral treasures, and equally certain that they can be
renewed either very, very slowly, or not at all. Shall we cause our
remote descendants to suffer for our carelessness?

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE SOIL--THE MOST IMPORTANT GIFT OF NATURE

An ancient story tells us that men were made from the dust of the earth.
This dust under our feet, which soils our shoes, this dust which the
wind sometimes sweeps along in blinding clouds, is indeed precious. The
delicate tissues of our bodies are made from the food we eat. If it be
plant food, it comes directly from the soil. If it be meat or eggs or
milk, it comes from animals which live upon the plants, that in turn got
their nourishment from the soil.

This soft, dark substance which covers the rocky skeleton of the earth
we call the _soil_. How common and cheap it looks when it is placed by
the side of a piece of gold! But how much more wonderful it would seem
if we could know all about it. The soil is far more necessary to our
comfort and prosperity than gold. Gold, silver, or precious stones
cannot keep us alive. They are of little worth to us compared with food
and clothing. The soil, then, is the real wealth of the world. The
farmer, who tills the soil, is the one worker we could not possibly do
without. All the wealth of the world, all the comforts which we have,
all the luxuries brought from far corners of the earth, come in the
first place from the soil.

We do not have to journey far over the earth to learn that there are
many lands where the fields are not fruitful, and yet such lands are
often rich and prosperous. How can this be if the soil is so necessary?
Let us go to New England and ask the people living there if they can
tell us why rich people sometimes inhabit lands which do not raise
enough for them to eat.

[Illustration: _H. W. Fairbanks_
These jagged rocks are formed of once molten lava. By and by they will
crumble and be covered with a layer of soil.]

Much of New England is hilly and has a poor, rocky soil. The farmers who
first settled there toiled hard, working early and late, and yet got few
of th