wood absorbs more moisture, and holds it with greater tenacity than hard wood, because it is more porous and hence offers a greater amount of surface upon which the moisture is condensed.

The relation of soils to moisture is analogous to that of the sponge. A soil in good condition for the growth of plants contains no water as such. The greatest pressure may be applied without obtaining from it a single drop of water. Yet the soil is not dry. Condensed upon the surface of every particle of which it is composed, is a small quantity of moisture, and the composition of the soil being the same, the amount of this moisture will be in direct proportion to the surface exposed and upon which condensation can take place.

On this account, he who would take every precaution to furnish his growing crops with sufficient moisture, and secure them against the evil effects of draught, will cultivate his soil well, that it may hold within its pores that moisture which is readily given to the growing plant, although held there with great tenacity.

Again, during our hot summers, an immense quantity of water is evaporated from the surface of soils exposed directly to the sun's rays, as are our corn-fields. Or, if covered with a growing crop, the moisture is absorbed by the plants, and through them passes into the atmosphere. In either case there is a great demand upon the soil for water, while perhaps for weeks no rain will fall. Water must be had by the crop or it fails at the harvest.

But where is the supply to be obtained after that within the immediate reach of the roots is exhausted?

Every one is familiar with the experiment illustrating capillary attraction, in which water rises much higher in a small tube than in a large one, or perhaps the wick of a lamp drawing oil from the reservoir below is more familiar. The oil is drawn up through the minute channels existing in the wick, but unless the fibres of which it is composed are quite close together, and the channels very minute, the oil would not rise to supply the flame.

Soils possess this same capillary power, and if loose and sufficiently fine, water will be brought from the deeper soil to supply this evaporation from the surface. But if the surface soil is coarse, and the deeper soil hard and compact, if they have not both been well broken up and pulverized by thorough cultivation, they are un

able to raise water by this power for the relief of the thirsty crops.

Again then, for the purpose of protection from drought, deep and thorough tillage is necessary on the part of every farmer, and other conditions remaining the same, the production will be largely in the ratio of the depth and thoroughness of the cultivation.

All soils possess, to a greater or less degree, the power of absorbing from water, that is slowly filtered through them, solid matter held in solution by the water. The power of soils in this respect is doubtless familiar to all.

Thus every farmer knows that if the washings of his barn-yard can be filtered through the soil of adjacent fields, the larger proportion of the fertilizing ingredients in solution in the water will be left in the soil, while the water will pass away comparatively pure. Deeply colored syrups were formerly decolorized by passing them through layers of clay.

The common house filter depends upon the same principle, the impurities of the water being taken out by a layer of animal charcoal.

This absorbent power of soils depends upon the attraction existing between the surface of the particles of which the soils are composed, and the surface of the particles of solids held in solution. It is again the result of the attraction between surfaces, and consequently the greater the amount of surface, the more complete will be the abstraction of any solid matter held in solution.

Now rain brings from the atmosphere appreciable quantities of valuable fertilizing materials, especially nitric acid and ammonia, and these are absorbed by the soil as the water slowly percolates through it, if its attractive power is sufficient, and that, upon the same soil, is in proportion to the fineness of the particles. For that s the index of the amount of surface by which the dissolved particles will be attracted and held. Here again then, we have arrived at the same conclusion as before. Soils need to be thoroughly pulverized that they may take from water, with which they come in contact, the valuable fertilizing material held in solution by it. Manures are applied to soils for several reasons. First, that they may furnish to the growing plants certain constituents that contribute directly to their growth. This office of manure is quite often supposed to be the principal function in aid of the growth of crops. Manure does indeed often furnish material that is of direct

service to the plant in building up its structure, but it is not essential that it should do so, and doubtless with much farm-yard manure this is but a secondary office, its indirect benefit being much the greater.

Secondly. Manure improves the texture of heavy soils, rendering them "light" loose and porous, diminishing their tenacity and so accomplishing the ends that are often sought only by stirring the soil with implements of tillage. This is a most important function of manure when applied to heavy clay soils.

By the thorough incorporation of decomposing organic matter in such a soil, its tenacity is destroyed, it is no longer hard and "lumpy," yielding to the plow with the greatest difficulty, but is friable, and is readily stirred in tilling.

Thirdly. Manures benefit soils by the decomposition of the organic matter of which they are composed within the soil, thus furnishing where it is needed an abundant supply of carbonic acid gas, which acts as a powerful solvent upon the mineral constituents, disintegrating them and setting free material needed by the plant in building up its structure.

Boussingault and Leroy as quoted by Johnson in "How Crops Feed," found that while the ordinary air contained but six parts of carbonic acid gas in ten thousand, air from the surface soil of a forest contained 130 parts, that from the surface soil of a pasture contained 270 parts and that from a newly manured sandy field, during wet weather, contained 1413 parts of this gas.

The solvent power of carbonic acid is shown in the natural waters which have become charged with it in passing through the soil and have in consequence taken up considerable quantities of mineral matter. This dissolved mineral matter is again deposited when the carbonic acid is slowly driven off by heat, as is shown in the coating in a tea kettle, or when it escapes spontaneously, when exposed to the air, by which method, beds of bog-iron ore are formed. and large deposits of carbonate of lime are made. Then, with such a great increase of this solvent of minerals, as is shown by the above figures, we should expect the disintegration of soils to be rapidly hastened by the decomposition of manure in their midst.

This, then, is a very important function performed by manure, and so far as it alone applies, shows the increased benefit to be gained by adding the manure to the land in a green state, allowing

the decomposition to take place within the soil. The last beneficial effect of manure upon the soil of which I shall speak, is the effect which it produces upon the absorbent power of soils. As already stated, all soils have the power of absorbing water, atmospheric gases and fertilizing material brought in contact with them in solution. But all soils do not possess this power in the same degree.

Sand absorbs and retains these substances but slightly. The water is easily drained from such a soil, and fertilizing material placed upon it is quickly washed away. The farmer calls it a "leachy" soil, because it will not retain manure. Clay soils are retentive in a high degree, but peaty soils that contain a very large per cent. of organic matter, possess the power of absorption and retention in the highest degree. Manure by its decomposition within the soil, furnishes the organic matter, and so adds to the absorbent power of both clay and sandy soils. To the sandy soil it is of the greatest importance that this power of seizing and holding all fertilizing material brought in contact with it be greatly increased by applying manure before it is decomposed, or by plowing under green sward or a growing crop.

That land may derive all these benefits from manure in the highest degree, it is essential that they be well and thoroughly incorporated with the soil, and this can only be done by thorough tilling. Then, though manuring the soil is one means of cultivation, the greatest good from its application can only be obtained when it is accompanied by that cultivation that consists in mixing and pulverizing the soil by mechanical means.

It has been my aim to call attention to some of the mechanical effects of cultivation that are essential to high fertility; effects, the measure of whose aid is in proportion to the thoroughness with which the cultivation is performed, that I might plead for better and wiser culture; better and wiser, because it will return more abundant harvests and greater gains for the labor bestowed. An average crop of wheat in Wisconsin is about twelve bushels per acre. In England it is twenty-eight bushels. Yet a recent writer says, in regard to English agriculture, that without doubt the annual yield under a better system of cultivation would be increased by an amount equal to the entire rental of lands in the kingdom, or about $20,000,000 of our currency.

I have often thought that he spoke more truly than we thiuk,

who said of the prairies of the west, that "if the earth be but tickeled with a hoe, she laughs with a harvest." But it is a laugh of derision, that man, after the use of such inadequate means should expect anything but the meagre harvest that is a full reward for the labor bestowed.

It is well that the farmers of Wisconsin are learning to prize more highly the manure made upon the farm. They will have learned another valuable lesson when they fully realize the importance of better mechanical cultivation of the soil.

Professor DANIELLS. I want to say in regard to deeper and better cultivation, I mean mechanical cultivation and stirring the soil, I believe it is the one thing we fail in most completely.

Go through the corn-fields in the dry season, and we have perhaps nine inches of soil. That is fine near the surface, and after resting on the sub-soil, impervious to air and moisture, which never was stirred at all, and through which the moisture cannot penetrate downward or upward, what can we expect from such a soil? It can only furnish the moisture which takes hold of those few inches, and the moment that moisture is used up by the crop in cultivation, or is evaporated away by the sun's heat, and it is carried away very rapidly by this means, there is no longer any source from which the plant can get water, nor can the roots by any possible means get to water; they are kept separate as if by walls between them.

We need to have deeper cultivation, we need to have the soil stirred deeper. The trouble is not with the soil, but it is not stirred deep enough, for it could hold more water if it was so shaped that the water could not get away. Then plants could not possibly grow there, simply because the water was there, shutting out the air from the soil and cooling the soil down to too low a temperature.

All that is needed is simply thorough cultivation-not of a few inches of soil only, but thorough, deep cultivation of the soil-and it is of a great deal more importance that this should be done, that it should be stirred deep and often so that it is porous, than that we should apply manure to the soil. If the soils have an abundance of material within them, and if you will simply get the conditions, so that these natural agents, the air, carbonic acid gas in the water, and the oxygen, and all the elements of the air may come in