timber lands sometimes contain es mech partially decayed
wood or charcoal as te destroy the value of the nitrogen-
carbon ration for the purpose indicated.

It should be kept in miné that crops are not Hie
made out of nothing. - Ther are composed of ten different
elements of plant food, every one of which is absolutely
essential for the growth and formation of every agricultur-
al plant. Of these ten elements cof plent food, only
two {carbon ané oxygen) are secured frea the air by all
agricultural plants, only (hydrcegen) from water, ané
seven from the soil. Hitrogen, one of these seven ele-
ments secured from the soil by all plants, may alse be
secured from the air by one class of plans (legumes),
in case the amount Liberated from the soil is insufficient
but even these plants (vhich inclufie clovers, alfsifa,
peas, beans and vetches, among our common agricultural
pisnts) secure from tre scil alone six elements (phos-
phorous, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron and sulphur),
and also utilize the soil nitrogen so far as it besomes
Soluble and available during their period of srowth.

Plants are mede of plant-food elements in just
the same sense that a building is mace of weod and iron,
brick, stone endmortar. Without materials, nothing
material can be made. The normal temperature, sunshine,
reinfall, and Length of season in the Feace River dis-
trict are sufficient to produce forty bushels of wheat
per acre, one hundred bushels of oats and tr@ and one-~
helf tons of clover or timothy hay; end rhere the Land
is properly drained, properly tilled, such em ps would
frequently be secured if the plant foods were present in
sufficient amounts and liberated at a sufficiently rapid
rate to meet the ebsclute needs of the cm pis