"That is altogether possible," said Percy; "but it must be remembered that your soil is acid and consequently will not grow clover or alfalfa successfully, or even cowpeas very satisfactorily. A liberal use of ground limestone and large use of clover may be sufficient to greatly improve your soil; but if I am permitted to separate Miss Russell and the Thorntons "—Mr. Thornton's hilarious "Ha, ha" cut Percy short. He crimsoned and the ladies smiled at each other with expressions that revealed nothing whatever.

"Now let me finish," Percy continued, when Mr. Thornton had somewhat subsided. "I say, if I am permitted to separate Miss Russell and the Thorntons from about three hundred acres of their land, I shall certainly wish to know its total content of phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, before I make any purchase; and, if you will remember the pot cultures and the peaty swamp land, I think you'd agree with me.

"Well, I shall be mighty glad to know that myself," said Mr. Thornton, "and we shall much appreciate it if you can tell us how to secure that information."

"We can collect some soil to-morrow," Percy replied, "and send it to a chemist for analysis."

"Good," said Mr. Thornton; "now just one more question, and I think I shall sleep better if I have it answered to-night. Just what is meant by potash and phosphoric acid?"

"Potash," said Percy, "is a compound of potassium and oxygen. The proportions are one atom of oxygen and two atoms of potassium, which you may remember are single-handed and weigh thirty-nine, so that seventy-eight of potassium unite with sixteen of oxygen. A better name for the compound is potassium oxid: K20. The Latin name for potassium is kalium, and K is the symbol used for an atom of that element. If you were to purchase potassium in the form of potassium chlorid, which in the East is often called by the old incorrect name 'muriate of potash,' the salt might be guaranteed to contain a certain percentage of potash, which, however, consists of eighty-three per cent. of potassium and seventeen of oxygen."

"Just what is this potassium chlorid, or 'muriate of potash'?"

"Pure potassium chlorid contains only the two elements, potassium and chlorin."

"But didn't you say that it was guaranteed to contain potash and that potash is part oxygen? Now you say it contains only potassium and chlorin."

"Yes, I am sorry to say, that this is one of those blunders of our semi-scientific ancestors for which we still suffer. The chemist understands that the meaning of the guarantee of potash is the amount of potash that the potassium present in the potassium chlorid could be converted into. The best you can do is to reduce the potash guarantee to potassium by taking eighty-three per cent. of it; or, to be more exact, divide by ninety-four and multiply by seventy-eight, in order to eliminate the sixteen parts of oxygen.

"It may be well to keep in mind that when the druggist says potash he means potassium hydroxid, KOH, a compound of potassium, hydrogen, and oxygen, as the name indicates."

"You mentioned the word chlorin," said Mr. Thornton. "That is another element?"

"Yes, that is a very common element. Ordinary table salt is sodium chlorid: NaCl. Sodium is called natrium in Latin, and Na is the symbol used in English to be in harmony with all other languages, for practically all use the same chemical symbols. Sodium and potassium are very similar elements in some respects, and in the free state they are very peculiar, apparently taking fire when thrown into water. Chlorin in the free state is a poisonous gas. Thus the change in properties is well illustrated when these two dangerous elements, sodium and chlorin, unite to form the harmless compound which we call common salt.

"It is a shame," continued Percy, "that agricultural science has so long been burdened with such a term as 'phosphoric acid,' which serves to complicate and confuse what should be made the simplest subject to every American farmer and landowner. As agriculture is the fundamental support of America and of all her other great industries, so the fertility of the soil is the absolute support of every form of agriculture. Now, if there is any one factor that can be the most important, where so many are positively essential, then the most important factor in the problem of adopting and maintaining permanent systems of profitable agriculture on American soils is the element phosphorus.

"Phosphorus in very appreciable amount is positively necessary for the growth of every organism. It is an absolutely essential constituent of the nucleus of every living cell, whether plant or animal. Nuclein, itself, which is the substance nearest to the beginning of a new cell, contains as high as ten per cent. of the element phosphorus.

"On the other hand, phosphorus is the most limited of all the plant food elements, measured by supply and demand and circulation.

"What is phosphoric acid? Well, the professor of chemistry says it is a compound containing three atoms of hydrogen, one of phosphorus, and four of oxygen. It is a syrupy liquid and one of the strongest mineral acids. In concentrated form it is as caustic as oil of vitriol. Why, here you have a Century dictionary. That should tell what phosphoric acid is. This is what the Century says:

"'It is a colorless, odorless syrup, with an intensely sour taste. It is tribasic, forming three distinct classes of metallic salts. The three atoms of hydrogen may in like manner be replaced by alcohol radicles, forming acid and neutral ethers. Phosphoric acid is used in medicine as a tonic.'

"That," continued Percy, "is the complete definition as given by the Century dictionary as to what phosphoric acid is, and I note that this is the latest edition of the Century, copyrighted in 1902."

"We bought it less than a month ago," said Mrs. Thornton. "We can have so few books that we thought the Century would be a pretty good library in itself; Mr. Thornton has had too little time to use it much as yet."

"Well, even if I had used it," said Mr. Thornton, "you see there are five volumes before I'd get to the P's. But, joking aside, I don't get much out of that definition except that phosphoric acid is a sour liquid and is used in medicine."

"The definition is entirely correct," said Percy "Any text on chemistry will give you a very similar definition, and your physician and druggist will give you the same information."

"Well, I know the fertilizer agents claim to sell phosphoric acid in two-hundred-pound bags which wouldn't hold any kind of liquid."

"True," replied Percy, "and I consider it a shame that the farm boy who goes to the high school or college and is there taught exactly what phosphoric acid is, must. when he returns to the farm, try to read bulletins from his agricultural experiment station in which the term 'phosphoric acid' is used for what it is not. At the state agricultural college, the professor of chemistry correctly teaches the farm boy that phosphoric acid is a liquid compound containing three atoms of hydrogen, one of phosphorus, and four of oxygen in the molecule; and then the same professor, as an experiment station investigator, goes to the farmers' institutes and incorrectly teaches the same boy's father that phosphoric acid is a solid compound pound containing two atoms of phosphorus and five atoms of oxygen in the molecule."

"But why do they continue to teach such confusion?"

"Well, Sir, if they know, they never tell. In some manner this misuse of the name was begun, and every year doubles the difficulty of stopping it."

"Like the man that was too lazy to stop work when he had once begun," remarked Mr. Thornton.

"Yes," said Percy, "but it is true that some of the States have adopted the practice of reporting analyses of soils and fertilizers on the basis of nitrogen instead of ammonia; and in the Corn Belt States, phosphorus and potassium are the terms used to a large extent instead of 'phosphoric acid,' and potash. The agricultural press is greatly assisting in bringing about the adoption of the simpler system, and the laws of some States now require that the percentages of the actual plant food elements, as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, shall be guaranteed in fertilizers offered for sale. It is one of those questions that are never settled until they are settled right; and it is only a question of time until the simple element basis will be used throughout the United States, or at least in the Central and Western States."

"The so-called 'phosphoric acid' of the fertilizer agent is a compound whose molecule contains two atoms of phosphorus and five atoms of oxygen; and, since the atomic weight of phosphorus is thirty-one and that of oxygen sixteen, this compound contains sixty-two parts of phosphorus and eighty parts of oxygen. In other words, this phosphoric acid, falsely so-called, contains a trifle less than forty-four per cent. of the actual element phosphorus."

"Is the bone phosphate of lime that the agents talk about the same as the 'phosphoric acid'?" asked Mr. Thornton.

"No, by 'bone phosphate of lime,' which is often abbreviated B. P. L., is meant tricalcium phosphate, a compound which contains exactly twenty per cent. of phosphorus. Thus, you can always divide the guaranteed percentage of 'bone phosphate of lime' by five, and the result will be the per cent. of phosphorus.

"As stated in your Century dictionary, true phosphoric acid forms three distinct classes of salts, because either one, two, or all of the three hydrogen atoms may be replaced by a metallic element. Thus, we have phosphoric acid itself containing the three hydrogen atoms, one phosphorus atom, and four oxygen atoms. This might be called trihydrogen phosphate (H3PO4). Now if one of the hydrogen atoms is replaced by one potassium atom, we have potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4); with two potassium atoms and one hydrogen, we have dipotassium hydrogen phosphate (K2HPO4); and if all hydrogen is replaced by potassium the compound is tripotassium phosphate (K3PO4). To make similar salts with two-handed metallic elements, like calcium or magnesium, we need to start with two molecules of phosphoric acid H6(PO4)2; because each atom of calcium will replace two hydrogen atoms. Thus we have mono calcium phosphate, CaH4(PO4)2, dicalcium phosphate, Ca2H2(PO4)2, and tricalcium phosphate, Ca3(PO4)2. It goes without saying that monocalcium phosphate contains four atoms of hydrogen and that dicalcium phosphate contains two hydrogen atoms. By knowing the atomic weights (40 for calcium, 31 for phosphorus, and 16 for oxygen), it is easy to compute that the molecule of tricalcium phosphate weighs 310 of which 62 is phosphorus. This is exactly one-fifth, or twenty per cent. This compound you will remember is sometimes called 'bone phosphate of lime'. It is also called simply 'bone phosphate'; because it is the phosphorus compound contained in bones. It is sometimes called lime phosphate, although it contains no lime in the true sense, for it has no power to neutralize acid soils, except when the phosphorus is taken up by plants more rapidly than the calcium, which in such case might remain in the soil to act as a base to neutralize soil acids; but even then the effect of the small amount of calcium thus liberated from the phosphate would be very insignificant compared with a liberal application of ground limestone."

"Well," said Mr. Thornton, stretching himself, "orange phosphate is my favorite drink but I fear some of these phosphate you have just been giving me are too concentrated. I ought to have the dose diluted; but I like the taste of it, and if you'll write a book along this line, in this plain way just about as you have been giving it to me straight for almost twelve hours, I tell you I'll read it over till I learn to understand it a heap better than I do now."



CHAPTER XVIII

CLOSER TO MOTHER EARTH



THE following day Percy collected soil samples to represent the common type of soil on the farm. In the main the land was nearly level and very uniform, although here and there were small areas which varied from the main type, and in places the variation was marked. Percy and his host devoted the entire day to an examination of the soils of the farm and the collection of the samples.

"The prevailing soil type is what would be called a loam," said Percy, "and a single set of composite samples will fairly represent at least three-fourths of the land on this farm.

"It seems to me that it is enough for the present to sample this prevailing type, and later, if you desire, you could collect samples of the minor types, of which there are at least three that are quite distinct."

"A loam soil is one that includes a fair proportion of the several groups of soil materials, including silt, clay, and sand."

"What is silt?" asked Mr. Thornton.

"Silt consists of the soil particles which are finer than sand,—too small in fact to be felt as soil grains by rubbing between the fingers, and yet it is distinctly granular, while clay is a mere plastic or sticky mass like dough. What are commonly called clay soils consist largely of silt, but contain enough true clay to bind the silt into a stiff mass. In the main such soils are silt loams, but when deficient in organic matter they are yellow in color as a rule, and all such material is usually called clay by the farmers."

"Well, I had no idea that it would take us a whole day to get enough dirt for an analysis," remarked Mr. Thornton, as they were collecting the samples late in the afternoon. "Five minutes would have been plenty of time for me, before I saw the holes you've bored to-day."

"The fact is," replied Percy, "that the most difficult work of the soil investigator is to collect the samples. Of course any one could fill these little bags with soil in five minutes, but the question is, what would the soil represent? It may represent little more than the hole it came out of, as would be the case where the soil had been disturbed by burrowing animals, or modified by surface accumulations, as where a stack may sometime have been burned. In the one case the subsoil may have been brought up and mixed with the surface, and in the other the mineral constituents taken from forty acres in a crop of clover may have been returned to one-tenth of an acre."

"Certainly such things have occurred on many farms," agreed Mr. Thornton, "and they may have occurred on this farm for all any one knows."

"Fifty tons of clover hay," continued Percy, after making a few computations, "would contain 400 pounds of phosphorus, 2400 pounds of potassium, 620 pounds of magnesium, and 2340 pounds of calcium."

"I don't see how you keep all those figures in your head," said Mr. Johnston.

"How many pounds are there in a ton of hay?" asked Percy.

"Two thousand."

"How many pounds in a bushel of oats?"

"Thirty in Virginia, but thirty-two in Carolina."

"How many in a bushel of wheat?"

"Sixty"

"Corn?"

"Fifty-six pounds of shelled corn, or seventy pounds of ears."

"Potatoes?"

"Eighty-six pounds,—both kinds the same, but most States require sixty pounds for the Irish potatoes."

Percy laughed. "You see," he said, "you have more figures in your head than I have in mine. You have mentioned twice as many right here, without a moment's hesitation, as I try to remember for the plant food contained in clover. I like to keep in mind the requirements of large crops, such as it is possible to raise under our climatic conditions if we will provide the stuff the crops are made of, so far as we need to, and do the farm work as it should be done. I never try to remember how much plant food is required for twenty-two bushels of corn per acre, which is the average yield of Virginia for the last ten years, while an authentic record reports a yield of 239 bushels from an acre of land in South Carolina. On our little farm in Illinois we have one field of sixteen acres, which was used for a pasture and feed lot for many years by my grandfather and has been thoroughly tile-drained since I was born, that has produced as high as 2,015 bushels of corn in one season, thus making an average of 126 bushels per acre.

"What I try to remember is the plant food requirements for such crops as we ought to try to raise, if we do what ought to be done. I try to remember the plant food required for a hundred-bushel crop of corn, a hundred-bushel crop of oats, a fifty-bushel crop of wheat, and four tons of clover hay. It is an easy matter to divide these amounts by two, as I have really been doing here in the East where it is hard for people to think in terms of such crops as these lands ought to be made to produce.

"The requirements of the clover crop I certainly want to have in mind as a part of my little stock of ever-ready knowledge. It is not very hard to remember that a four-ton crop of clover hay, which we ought to harvest from one acre in two cuttings, contains:

160 pounds of nitrogen, 31 pounds of magnesium, 20 pounds of phosphorus, 120 pounds of potassium, 117 pounds of calcium.

"It is just as easy to think in these terms as in per cent. or pounds of butter fat, which I understand is the basis on which you sell your cream."

"Yes, I believe you are right in this matter, Mr. Johnston, but I have never been able to see how we could apply the figures reported from chemical analysis."

"Neither do I see how any one but a chemist could make much use of the reports which the analyst usually publishes. Such reports will usually show the percentages of moisture and so-called 'phosphoric acid,' for example, in a sample of clover hay, and perhaps the percentages of these constituents in a sample of soil; but to connect the requirements of the clover crop with the invoice of the soil demand more of a mental effort than I was prepared for before I went to the agricultural college.

"On the other hand we were taught in college that the plowed soil of an acre of our most common Illinois corn belt land contains only 1200 pounds of phosphorus, and that a hundred-bushel crop of corn takes twenty-three pounds of phosphorus out of the soil. Furthermore that about one pound of phosphorus per acre is lost annually in drainage water in humid regions. By dividing 1200 by 24 it is easy to see that fifty corn crops such as we ought to try to raise would require as much phosphorus as the present supply in our soil to a depth of about seven inches. Of course there is some phosphorus below seven inches, but it is the plowed soil we must depend upon to a very large extent. The oldest agricultural experiment station in the world is at Rothamsted, England. On two plots of ground in the same field where wheat has been grown every year for sixty years, the soil below the plow line has practically the same composition, but on one plot the average yield for the last fifty years has been thirteen bushels per acre, while on the other the yield of wheat has averaged thirty-seven bushels for the same fifty years."

"The same kind of wheat?" inquired Mr. Thornton.

"Yes, and great care has always been taken to have these two plots treated alike in all respects, save one."

"And what was that?"

"Plant food was regularly incorporated with the plowed soil of the high-yielding plot."

"You mean that farm manure was used?"

"No, not a pound of farm manure has been used on that plot for more than sixty years; and, furthermore, the two plots were very much alike at the beginning; but, to the high-yielding plot, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and sulfur have all been applied in suitable compounds every year."

"That is to say," observed Mr. Thornton, "that the land itself has produced thirteen bushels of wheat per acre and the plant food applied has produced twenty four bushels, making the total yield thirty-seven bushels on the fertilized land."

"That is certainly a fair way to state it," replied Percy.

" Well, that sounds as though something might be done with run-down lands. About what part of the twenty-four bushels increase would it take to pay for the fertilizers?"

"About 150 per cent. of it," Percy replied.

"One hundred and fifty per cent! Why, you can't have more than a hundred per cent. of anything."

"Oh, yes, you can. The twenty-four bushels are one hundred per cent. of what the fertilizers produced, and the land itself increased this by fifty per cent., so that the fertilized land produced one hundred and fifty per cent. of the increase from the plant food applied.

"Well, that's too much college mathematics for me; but do you mean to say that it would take the whole thirty-seven bushels to pay for the plant food that produced the increase of twenty-four bushels?"

"That is exactly what I mean. I see that you do not like percentage any better than I do. Really the acre is the best agricultural unit. We buy and sell the land itself by the acre; we report crop yields at so many bushels or tons per acre; we apply manure at so many loads or tons per acre; we apply so many hundred pounds of fertilizer per acre; sow our wheat and oats at so many pecks or bushels per acre; and we ought to know the invoice of plant food in the plowed soil of an acre and the amounts carried off in the crops removed from an acre.

"Now, referring again to these figures from the forty acres of clover at two tons per acre. If the eighty tons were burned and the ashes mixed with the surface soil on a tenth of an acre the increase per acre would be as follows:

4,000 pounds of phosphorus 24,000 pounds of potassium 6,200 pounds of magnesium 23,400 pounds of calcium.

"These, remember, are the amounts per acre that would be added to the soil by burning the eighty tons of clover on one-tenth of an acre.

"Now compare these figures with the total amounts of the same elements contained in the common corn belt prairie soil of Illinois, which are as follows:

1,200 pounds of phosphorus 35,000 pounds of potassium 8,600 pounds of magnesium 5,400 pounds of calcium.

"From these figures you will see that the analysis of a single sample of soil collected from a spot of ground that had sometimes received such an addition as this would be positively worse than worthless, because it would give false information, and that is much worse than no information.

"The methods of chemical analysis have been developed to a high degree of accuracy, and it is not a difficult matter to find a chemist who can make a correct analysis of the sample placed in his hands; but the chief difficulties lie, first, in securing samples of soil that will truly represent the type or types of soil on the farm; and, second, in the interpretation of the results of analysis with reference to the adoption of methods of soil improvement."

"Is the report of the analysis as confusing with respect to other elements as with potassium and phosphorus, which, I understand, are likely to be reported in terms of potash and a 'phosphoric acid' that is not true phosphoric acid?"

"Still worse," Percy replied. "The calcium is commonly reported in terms of lime, or, as you would say, quick lime; and vet the soil may be an acid soil, like yours, and contain no lime whatever, neither as quick lime nor limestone. I have seen an analysis reporting half a per cent. of calcium oxid, which would make five tons of quick lime in the plowed soil of an acre; whereas the soil not only contained no lime whatever, but was so acid that it needed five tons of ground limestone per acre to correct the acidity.

"The trouble is that when the chemist found calcium in the soil existing in the form of acid silicate, or calcium hydrogen silicate, he reported calcium oxid, or lime, in his analytical statement, assuming apparently that the farmer would understand that the analytical statement did not mean what it said."

"But some soils do contain lime, do they not?"

"Some soils contain limestone," replied Percy, "and the analysis of such a soil should report the amount of limestone, or calcium carbonate, based upon the actual determination of carbonate carbon or carbon dioxid, which is a true measure of the basic property of the soil, even though the limestone may be somewhat magnesian in character."

For a set of soil samples. Percy collected soil from three different strata. The first sample represented the surface stratum from the top to six and two-third inches; the second sample represented the subsurface stratum from six and two-thirds to twenty inches; and the third sample represented the subsoil from twenty to forty inches, each sample being a composite of about twenty borings.

In collecting these the hole was bored to six and two-third inches and somewhat enlarged by scraping up and down with the auger, all of the soil being put into a numbered bag. Then, the hole was extended and the subsurface boring removed without touching the surface soil. This boring to a depth of twenty inches was put into a second bag. The hole was then enlarged to the twenty-inch depth but the additional soil removed was discarded as a mixture of the surface and subsurface strata. Finally the hole was extended to the forty-inch depth and the subsoil from one groove of the auger was put into a third bag. In this manner about an equal quantity of soil was bagged from each stratum; and twenty such borings taken with an auger about one inch in diameter make a sufficient quantity to furnish to the chemist.

"Of course the surface soil is by far the most important," Percy explained. "It represents just about the depth of earth that is turned by the plow in good farming on normal soils; and it weighs about two million pounds per acre. The subsurface stratum extending from six and two-thirds to twenty inches in depth represents the practical limit of subsoiling; and this stratum weighs about four million pounds; while the subsoil stratum weighs about six million pounds, where the soil is normal, such as loam, silt loam, clay loam, or sandy loam. Pure sand soil weighs about one-fourth more, while pure peat soil weighs only half as much as normal soil."

"I wish you would tell me," said Mr. Thornton, "what the fertilizers cost that have been used on that Rothamsted wheat field."

"The annual application of nitrogen has been one hundred twenty-nine pounds per acre," said Percy. "What will it cost?"

"Well, at twenty cents a pound, it would cost $25.80," was Mr. Thornton's reply after he had figured a moment. "But why didn't they grow clover and get the nitrogen from the air?"

"For two reasons," replied Percy. "First, when those classic experiments were begun by Sir John Lawes and Sir Henry Gilbert in 1844, it was not known that clover could secure the free nitrogen from the air; and, second, the experiment was designed to discover for certain whether wheat must be supplied with combined nitrogen, by ascertaining the actual effect upon the yield of wheat of the nitrogen applied."

"And what was the actual effect of the nitrogen?" questioned Mr. Thornton. "How much did the wheat yield when they left out the nitrogen and applied all the other elements?"

"Only fifteen bushels," was the reply.

"Only fifteen bushels! Only two bushels increase for all the other elements, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and calcium,—and I remember you said that sulfur also was applied. Why didn't they leave off all these other elements, and just use the nitrogen alone?"

"They did on another plot in the same field."

"Oh, they did do that? What was the yield on that plot?"

"Only twenty bushels."

"Only twenty bushels! Well, that s mighty queer. How do you account for that?"

"Does Mrs. Thornton sometimes make dough out of flour and milk?" asked Percy.

"Another Yankee question, eh?" said Mr. Thornton. "I told my wife once that I wished she could make the bread my mother used to make, and she said she wished I could make the dough her father used to make. Yes, my wife makes dough, a good deal more than I do, and she makes it of flour and milk, when we aren't reduced to corn meal and water."

"Can she make dough of flour alone?" continued Percy.

"No," replied Mr. Thornton.

"Nor of milk alone?"

"No."

"Well, wheat cannot be made of nitrogen alone, nor can it be made without nitrogen. On Broadbalk field at Rothamsted, where the wheat is grown, the soil is most deficient in the element nitrogen. In other words, nitrogen is the limiting element for wheat on that soil; and practically no increase can be made in the yield of wheat unless nitrogen is added. However, some other elements are not furnished by this soil in sufficient amount for the largest yield of wheat, and these place their limitation upon the crop at twenty bushels. To remove this second limitation requires that another element, such as phosphorus, shall be supplied in larger amount than is anually liberated in the soil under the system of farming practiced."

"Yes, I see that," said Mr. Thornton, "it's like eating pancakes and honey; the more cakes you have the more honey you want. I think I can almost see my way through in this matter; we are to correct the acid with limestone, to work the legumes for nitrogen, and turn under everything we can to increase the organic matter, and if we find that the soil won't furnish enough phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, or calcium, even with the help of the decaying organic matter to liberate them, why then it is up to us to increase the supply of those elements."

"You must remember that the calcium will be supplied in the limestone;" cautioned Percy. "And, if you use magnesian limestone, you will thus supply both calcium and magnesium. Keep in mind that magnesian only means that the limestone contains some magnesium. and that it is not a pure calcium carbonate. The purest magnesian limestone consists of a double carbonate of calcium and magnesium, called dolomite."

"But I have heard that magnesian lime is bad for soils," said Mr. Thornton.

"That is true," Percy replied, "and so is ordinary lime bad for soils. The Germans say: 'Lime makes the fathers rich but the children poor.' The English saying is:

'Lime and lime without manure Will make both farm and farmer poor.'

"Both of these national proverbs are correct for common, every-day lime; but you know, do you not, that limestone soils are usually very good and very durable soils?"

"That's what I've always heard," replied Mr. Thornton.

"Well, there is no danger whatever from using too much limestone; and all the information thus far secured shows that magnesian limestone is even better than the pure calcium limestone. I know two Illinois farmers who are using large quantities of ground magnesian limestone, and one of them has applied as much as twenty tons per acre. On that land his corn crop was good for eighty bushels per acre this year. Of course that heavy application was more than was needed, but initial applications of four or five tons are very satisfactory, and these should be followed by about two tons per acre every four to six years."

Mr. Thornton took his guest to Blairville that evening as they had planned and he assured Percy that should he decide to purchase land in that section they would let him have three hundred acres of their land at ten dollars an acre.

"I will let you know after I get the samples analyzed for you," said Percy. "The price is low enough and the location ideal, but still I want to have the invoice before I buy the goods. I will write you about sending the samples to the chemist after I hear from some I sent him from Montplain."



CHAPTER XIX

FROM RICHMOND TO WASHINGTON



THE next day Percy spent a few hours at the State Capitol in Richmond, where he found the records of the State of much interest.

Thus he found that in practically every county there was more or less land owned by the commonwealth, because of its complete abandonment by former owners, and the failure of any one to buy when sold by the state for taxes.

Under such conditions the title to the land returns to the State, and after two years it may be sold by the State to any one desiring to purchase and the former owner has no further right of redemption. Some of these lands which are owned by the State, and on which the State has received no taxes for many years, are still occupied by their former owners or by "squatters"' and may continue to be so occupied unless the land should be purchased from the State by some one else who would demand full possession. Such purchasers, however, are likely to be unpopular residents in the community, if the transaction forces poor people from a place they have called home, even though they had no legal right to occupy it.

Percy found that the report of the State Auditor showed that the clerk of the court of Powhatan county had returned to the State $1.05 "for sales of lands purchased by the commonwealth at tax sales," while from Prince Edward county the State received a similar revenue amounting to $17.39 for the same year. The total revenue to the commonwealth from this source amounted to $667.85 for the year. Contrasted with this was the revenue from "Redemption of Land," amounting to $27,436.38, suggesting something of the struggle of the man to retain possession of his home before it becomes legally possible for another to take it from him beyond redemption.

According to the records about a million acres of land are owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia alone.

Percy decided to go to Washington to learn what definite information he might obtain from the United States Department of Agriculture. On the train for Washington he found himself sitting beside a Virginia farmer.

"These lands remind me of our Western prairies," Percy remarked. "You have some extensive areas of level or gently undulating uplands."

"They don't remind me of the Western prairies, I can tell you," was the reply. "I am a Westerner myself, or I was until eight years ago. These lands look all right from the train when the crops are all off, but I find that every patch of the earth's surface doesn't always make a good farm. Why you can go from Danville, Illinois, to Omaha, Nebraska, and stop anywhere in the darkest night and you're mighty near sure to light on a good farm where one acre is worth ten of this land along here."

"About what is this land worth?" asked Percy.

"Well, I thought six hundred acres of it was worth $5,000 about eight years ago, especially as the buildings on the place were in good repair and couldn't be built to-day for less than $6,000: but right now I think I paid a plenty for my land. It's just back a few miles at the station where I got on."

"How far is that from Washington?"

"About fifteen miles, I reckon, as the crow flies. My boy has a telescope his uncle sent him and we can see the Monument on a clear day."

"What monument?" asked Percy.

"Why, Washington's monument. Haven't you ever been to Washington?"

"No, this is my first visit. I am really thinking of buying a farm somewhere here in the East. I have been in Richmond and learned a great deal from the state reports, and I thought I might get more information from the Department of Agriculture in Washington."

"Perhaps," said the man, "but my advice is to keep in mind that there is a difference between buying land and buying a farm. I've got land to sell, by the way. I thought I'd need it all when I bought, but I can see now that I'll not need more'n half of it at the most; so, if you want two or three hundred acres of this kind of land right close here where you kind o' neighbor with the senators and other upper tens, and run back and forth from the City in an hour or so, why I think I can accommodate you. My name is Sunderland, J. R. Sunderland, and you'll find me at home any day."

"How much would you sell part of your land for?" inquired Percy.

"Well, I'd kind o' hate to take less than ten dollars an acre for it; but I think we can make a deal all right if you like the location."



CHAPTER XX

A LESSON IN OPTIMISM



ABOUT nine o'clock the day following Percy's arrival in Washington he sent his card into the office of the Secretary of Agriculture.

"Just step this way," said the boy on his return. "The Secretary will see you at once."

A gentleman who appeared to be sixty, but was really several years older, arose from his desk and greeted Percy very kindly.

"I see you are from Illinois, Mr. Johnston. I am an Iowa man myself, and I am always glad to see any one from the corn belt. Do you know we are going to beat the records this year? It is wonderful what crops we grow in this country, and they are getting better every year. We are growing more than two-thirds of the entire corn crop of the globe, right here in these United States. Yes, Sir, and we are just beginning to grow corn; and corn is only one of our important agricultural products. Do you know that eighty-six per cent. of all the raw materials used in all the manufactured products of this country come from the farms of the United States; yes, Sir, eighty-six per cent.

"Now, what can I do for you? I am very glad you called, and I will be glad to serve you in any way you desire. By the way, how is the corn turning out in your part of Illinois? Bumper crop, I have no doubt."

"I think so," said Percy, "after seeing the crops here in the East.

"That's what I thought," continued the Secretary." A bumper crop, the biggest we ever raised. Oh, they don't know how to raise corn here in the East. They just grow corn, corn, corn, year after year; and that will get any land out of fix. I found that out years ago in Iowa. I am a farmer myself, as I suppose you know. I found you couldn't grow corn on the same land all the time. But just rotate the crops; put clover in the rotation; and then your ground will make corn again, as good as ever."

"But I understand that clover refuses to grow on most of this eastern land," said Percy.

"Oh, nonsense. They don't sow it. I tell you they don't sow it, and they don't know how to raise it. It takes a little manure sometimes to start it, but it will grow all right if they would only give it half a chance. Why, for years the Iowa farmers said blue grass wouldn't grow in Iowa. Yes, Sir, they just knew it wouldn't grow there; and then I showed them that blue grass was actually growing in Iowa,—actually growing along the roadsides almost everywhere,—blue grass that would pasture a steer to the acre—just came in of itself without being seeded. No, I tell you they don't sow clover down here. They just say it won't grow and keep right on planting corn, corn, corn, until the corn crop amounts to nothing, and then they let the land grow up in brush."

"Now, I do not wish to take up more of your time," said Percy, "for I know how busy a man you must be, but I am thinking of buying a farm, or some land, here in the East and have come to you for information. We have a small farm in Illinois and land is rather too high-priced there to think of buying more; but I thought I could sell at a good price, and buy a much larger farm here in the East with part of the money and still have enough left to build it up with; and, with the high price of all kinds of farm produce here, we ought to make it pay."

"You can do it," said the Secretary. "No doubt of it. Any land that ever was any good is all right yet if you'll grow clover, and you can start that with a little manure if you need it. I have done it in Iowa, and I know what I am talking about.

"Now my Bureau of Soils can give you just the information you want. We are making a soil survey of the United States, and we have soil maps of several counties right here in Maryland. You can take that map and pick out any kind of land you want,—upland or bottom land,—sandy soil, clay soil, loam, silt loam, or anything you want."



CHAPTER XXI

IN THE OFFICE OF THE CHIEF



"SHOW this gentleman to the Bureau of Soils," said the Secretary to the boy who came as he pushed a button.

"All the world loves an optimist," said Percy to himself as he followed the boy to another office where he met the Chief of the Bureau of Soils, who kindly furnished him with copies of the soil maps of several counties, including two in Maryland, Prince George, which adjoins the District of Columbia, and St. Mary county, which almost adjoins Prince George on the South.

These maps were accompanied by extensive reports describing in some detail the agricultural history of the counties and the general observations that had been made by the soil surveyors.

"I desire to learn as much as I can regarding the most common upland soils," Percy explained. "Not the rough or broken land, but the level or undulating lands which are best suited for cultivation. I am sure these maps and reports will be a very great help to me."

"I think you will find just what you are looking for," said the Chief. "You can spread the maps out on the table there and let me know if I can be of any assistance. You see the legend on the margin gives you the name of every soil type, and the soils are fully described in the reports. One of the most common uplands soils in southern Prince George county is the Leonardtown loam, and this type is also the most extensive soil type in St. Mary county.

"The same type is found in Virginia to some extent. While the soil has been run down by improper methods of culture, it has a very good mechanical composition and is really an excellent soil; but it needs crop rotation and more thorough cultivation to bring it back into a high state of fertility. The farmers are slow to take up advanced methods here in the East. We have told them what they ought to do, but they keep right on in the same old rut."

For two hours Percy buried himself with the maps and reports. Finally the Chief came from his inner office, and finding Percy still there asked if he had found such information as he desired.

"I find much of interest and value, but I do not find any complete invoice of the plant food contained in these different kinds of soil."

"You mean an ultimate chemical analysis of the soil?" asked the Chief.

"Yes, a chemical analysis to ascertain the absolute amount of plant food in the soil. I think of it as an invoice; but I see that you do not report any such analyses."

"No, we do not," answered the Chief. "We have been investigating the mechanical composition of soils, the chemistry of the soil solution, and the adaptation of crop to soil. We find that farmers are not growing the crops they should grow; namely, the crops to which their soils are best adapted. For example, they try to grow corn on land that is not adapted to corn."

"It seems to me," said Percy, "that our farmers are always trying to find a crop that is adapted to their soil. Down in 'Egypt,' which covers about one-third of Illinois, the farmers once raised so much corn that the people from the swampy prairie went down there to buy corn, and hence the name 'Egypt' became applied to Southern Illinois. But there came a time when the soil refused to grow such crops of corn; the farmers then found that wheat was adapted to the soil. Later the wheat yields decreased until the crop became unprofitable; and the farmers sought for another crop adapted to a still more depleted soil. Timothy was selected, and for many years it proved a profitable crop; but of late years timothy likewise has decreased in yield until there must be another change; and now whole sections of 'Egypt' are growing red top as the only profitable crop. After red top, then what? I don't know, but it looks as though it would be sprouts and scrub brush, and final land abandonment, a repetition of the history of these old lands of Virginia and Maryland."

"Well, can't they grow corn after red top?" asked the Chief.

"Many of them try it many times," replied Percy, "and the yield is about twenty bushels per acre, whereas the virgin soil easily produced sixty to eighty bushels."

"And they can't grow wheat as they once did?"

"No, wheat after timothy or red top now yields from five to twelve bushels per acre, while they once grew twenty to thirty bushels of wheat per acre year after year.

"If they rotate their crops, they would probably yield as well as ever," said the Chief.

"No, that, too, has been tried," replied Percy. "The Illinois Experiment Station has practiced a four-year rotation of corn, cowpeas, wheat, and clover on an experiment field on the common prairie soil down in 'Egypt,' and the average yield of wheat has been only twelve bushels per acre during the last four years, but when legume crops were plowed under and limestone and phosphorus applied, the average yield during the same four years was twenty-seven bushels per acre."

"Probably the increase was all produced by the green manure," suggested the Chief. "Organic matter has a great influence on the control of the moisture supply."

"That was tested," said Percy. "The green manure alone increased the average yield to only fourteen bushels while the green manure and limestone together raised the average wheat yield to nineteen bushels, the further increase to twenty-seven bushels having been produced by the addition of phosphorus."

"Well, Sir," said the Chief, "we have made both extensive intensive investigations concerning the chemistry of the soil solution by very delicate and sensitive methods of analysis we have developed, and we have also conducted culture experiments for twenty-day periods with wheat seedlings in the water extract of soils from all parts of the United States, and the results we have obtained have changed the thought of the world as to the cause of the infertility of soils."

"But you have not made analyses for total plant food in the soils or conducted actual field experiments with crops grown to maturity?" asked Percy.

"No, we have not done that," answered the Chief. "Those are old methods of investigation which have been tried for many years and yet no chemist can tell in advance what will be the effect of a given fertilizer upon a given crop on a given soil."

"That is true," said Percy, "but neither can any merchant tell in advance just what effect will be produced on the next day's business by the addition of a given number of a given kind of shoes to a given stock on his shelves. There are many factors involved in both cases."

"Yes, you are right in that," said the Chief, "we are just beginning to understand the chemistry of the soil, and we hope soon to have very complete proof of the advanced ideas we already have concerning the causes of the fertility and infertility of soils."

"Referring to the specific case of the Leonardtown loam of Maryland," said Percy, "I find the following statement on page 33 of the Report of the Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils for 1900. After describing the Norfolk loam of St. Mary County, the writer says:

"'The Leonardtown loam is a very much heavier type of soil. It covers about forty-one per cent. of St. Mary County. The soil is a yellow silty soil, resembling loess in texture, underlaid by a clay subsoil with layers or pockets of sand. This soil has been cultivated for upward of two hundred years, but it is now little valued and is covered with oak and pine over much of its area. It is worth from $1 to $3 per acre. The cultivated areas produce small crops of corn, wheat, and an inferior grade of tobacco.'"

"The generally low estimation in which this land is held is probably wholly unjustified," replied the Chief. "There are two or three farms in the area which, under a high state of cultivation with intelligent methods, will produce from twenty to thirty bushels of wheat per acre and corresponding crops of corn. Those farmers are a credit to the country. They furnish the towns with good milk and butter and vegetables, and they also help to keep the towns clean and sanitary by hauling out the animal excrements, and other waste and garbage that tend to pollute the air and water of the village."

"I can see how that might maintain the fertility of those farms," said Percy. "It seems that the general condition of this kind of land is about the same in Prince George County. On page 45 of the 1901 Report of the Field Operations of the Bureau of Soils, I have noted the following statement:

"'The Leonardtown loam, covering 45,770 acres of the area, is the nearest approach among the Maryland Coastal Plain Soils to the heavy clays of the limestone regions of Western Maryland and Pennsylvania. The surface is generally level and the drainage fair. The soil is not adapted to tobacco, and has consequently been allowed to grow up to scrub forest, so that large portions of it are at present uncleared. Such unimproved lands can be bought for $1.50 to $5.00 an acre, even within a few miles of the District line. The soil has been badly neglected, and when cultivated the methods have not been such as to promote fertility. When properly handled, as it is in a few places, good yields of wheat, corn and grass are obtained.'"

"That's right," said the Chief, "exactly right. Upon the whole it is one of the most promising soils of the locality, although it is not considered so by the resident farmers."

"You mean that it should be handled the same as is done by the successful farmers of St. Mary County?" inquired Percy.

"Yes, it needs thorough cultivation and the rotation of crops; and the physical condition of the soil needs to be improved by the addition of lime and manure, or green crops turned under."

"I have been looking over some of the other Reports of Field Operations," said Percy." I became interested in the description of a Virginia soil called Porters black loam. I find the following statements on page 210 of the Report for 1902:

"'The Porters black loam occurs in all the soil survey sheets, extending along the top of the main portion of the Blue Ridge Mountains in one continuous area. This type consists of the broad rolling tops and the upper slopes of the main range of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Locally the Porters black loam is called "black land" and "pippin" land, the latter term being applied because, of all the soils of the area, it is pre-eminently adapted to the Newtown and Albermarle Pippin. This black land has long been recognized as the most fertile of the mountain soils. It can be worked year after year without apparent impairment of its fertility. Wheat winter kills, the loose soils heaving badly under influence of frost. The areas lie at too high elevations for corn. Oats do well, making large yields. Irish potatoes, even under ordinary culture, will yield from two hundred to three hundred bushels per acre. It seeds in blue grass naturally, which affords excellent pasturage. Clover and other grasses will also grow luxuriantly upon it. The areas occupied by this soil are mostly cleared.'"

"Yes, Sir," said the Chief, "the Potters black loam is a fine soil—loose and porous as stated in the Report. You see it has a good physical condition."

"There is one other description in this Report for 1903 that is of special interest to me," said Percy. "This relates to a type of soil which the surveyors found in the low level areas of prairie land in McLean County, Illinois, and which they have called Miami black clay loam. I think we have several acres of the same kind of soil on our own little farm. I found the following statements on page 787:

"'When the first settlers came to McLean County they found the areas occupied by the Miami black clay loam wet and swampy, and before these areas could be brought under cultivation it was necessary to remove the excess of moisture. With the exception of a few large ditches for outlets, tile drains have taken the place of open ditches. Drainage systems in some instances have cost as much as $25 an acre, but the very productive character of the soil, and the increase in the yields fully justify the expense. There are few soils more productive than the Miami black clay loam. Some areas have been cropped almost continuously in corn for nearly fifty years without much diminution in the yields.'"

"Now there you are again," said the Chief. "Drainage, that's all it needed. You see it's a simple matter; and that's what the Leonardtown loam needs in places. Give it good drainage and good cultivation with a rotation of crops, and you'll get results all right."

"Has the Bureau of Soils tried these methods on any of this soil near Washington?" asked Percy.

"No use," replied the Chief. "We've got the scientific facts and besides, as I told you, some few farms are kept up in both Prince George and St. Mary counties and they are as good demonstrations as anyone could want. Now I suggest that you meet some of our scientists."



CHAPTER XXII

THE CHEMIST'S LABORATORY



THE Chief showed Percy into the laboratories of the Bureau and introduced him to the soil physicist and the soil chemist. Percy was greatly interested in the various lines of work in progress and gladly accepted an invitation to return after lunch and become better acquainted with the methods of investigation used.

In the afternoon the physicist showed him how the soil water could be removed from an ordinary moist soil by centrifugal force, and the chemist was growing wheat seedlings in small quantities of this water and in water extracts contained in bottles. The seedlings were allowed to grow for twenty days and then other seedlings were started in the same solution and also in fresh solution, and it was very apparent that in some cases the wheat grew better in the fresh solutions.

The chemist explained that he also analyzed the soil solutions and water extracts from different soils and that there was no relation between the crop yields and the chemical composition of the soils.

"But it seems to me," said Percy, "that your analysis refers to the plant food dissolved in the soil water only at the time when you extract it. How long a time does it require to make the extraction?"

"As a rule we shake the soil with water for three minutes and then it takes twenty minutes to separate the water from the soil. This gives us the plant food in solution and with the addition of more water the nitrates, phosphoric acid, and potash in the soil immediately dissolve sufficiently give us a nutrient solution of the same concentration as we had before. Thus there is always sufficient plant food in the soil so long as there is any of the original stock."

"That is surely quick work," said Percy, "but I wonder if the corn plant might not get somewhat different results from the soil analysis which it makes."

"How do you mean?"

"Did you ever plant a field of corn and then cultivate it and watch it grow with increasing rapidity, until along about the Fourth of July every leaf seemed to nod its appreciation and thanks as you stirred the soil; and to show its gratitude, too, by growing about five inches every twenty-four hours when the nights were warm?"

"No," replied the Chemist, "I have never had any experience of that sort. I am devoting my life to the more scientific investigations relating to the fundamental laws which underlie these soil fertility problems."

"Well, I was only thinking," Percy continued, "that you analyze a fraction of a pound of soil in a few minutes, while the corn plant analyzes about a ton of soil by a sort of continuous process, which covers twenty-four hours every day for about one hundred and twenty days, and it takes into account every change in temperature and moisture, the aeration with any variation produced by cultivation, and also the changes brought about by the nitrifying bacteria and all other agencies that promote the decomposition of the soil and the liberation of plant food, including the action upon the insoluble phosphates and other minerals of the carbonic acid exhaled by the roots of the corn plants, the nitric acid produced by the process of nitrification, and the various acids resulting from the decay of organic matter contained in the soil."

"I am very familiar with the literature of the whole subject of soil fertility," replied the Chemist, "and our theories are being accepted everywhere. I have just returned from a lecture tour extending from Florida to Michigan, and our ideas and methods are being very generally adopted, not only in this country but also in Europe."

"The Chief of the Bureau very kindly permitted me to look over the maps and reports relating to the soils of Maryland and Virginia," said Percy, "but in this literature I found no data as to the amount of plant food contained in the various soil types that have been found in the surveys. May I ask if the Bureau has made any analyses to ascertain the total amounts of the different essential plant food elements contained in these different soils?"

"No," the Chemist replied, "a chemical analysis gives practically no information concerning the fertility of the soil. We have made no ultimate analyses of soils, although we have used the same methods of analysis in a study of the partial composition of the soil separates, or particles of different grades, such as the sand, the silt, and the clay."

"And have you also determined the percentages of sand, silt, and clay in the soils themselves?"

"Oh, yes, the physical composition of the soil is a matter of very great importance, and this is always determined and reported for every soil. Did you not see that in the Reports you examined this morning?"

"I think I did notice it," Percy replied, "but it is so easy for the farmer himself to tell a sandy soil from a clay soil that I did not appreciate the value of those physical analyses.

"In any case, I shall be very glad to know what results were obtained from the chemical analysis of the soil separates to which you referred."

"Those results are all reported in Bulletin No. 54 of the Bureau of Soils," said the Chemist, "and I have extra copies right here and will be glad to present you with one. And let me give you our Bulletin 22 also. This will enable you to get a clear idea of the principles we are developing which are solving the soil fertility problems that have completely baffled the scientists heretofore."



CHAPTER XXIII

MATHEMATICS APPLIED TO AGRICULTURE



PERCY left the Bureau of Soils with a feeling of deep appreciation for the uniform courtesy and kindness that had been accorded him, but with a firm conviction that the laboratory scientists were too far removed from the actual conditions existing in the cultivated field. He sought the quiet of his room at the hotel in order to study the bulletins he had received.

Even with his college training he found it difficult to form clear mental conceptions of the results of investigations reported in the bulletins. Sometimes the data were reported in percentages and sometimes in parts per million. No reports gave the amounts of the element phosphorus; but PO4 was given in some places and P2O5 in others. In Bulletin No. 22, the potassium and calcium were reported as the elements and the nitrogen in terms of NO3, while potash (K20), quicklime (CaO), and magnesia (MgO) were reported in Bulletin 54.

By a somewhat complicated mathematical process, he finally succeeded in making computations from the percentages of the various compounds reported in the soil separates and from the percentages of these different separates contained in the soils themselves and from the known weights of normal soils, until he reduced the data to amounts per acre of plowed soil.

He was especially pleased to find that the essential data were at hand not only for both the Leonardtown loam and the Porter's black loam, but also for the Norfolk loam, which he had learned from one of the soil maps was the principal type of soil southwest of Blairville on Mr. Thornton's farm; and, furthermore, the Miami black clay loam of Illinois was included. Percy knew the black clay loam was a rich soil, for the teacher in college had said that the more common prairie land and most timber lands were much less durable and needed thorough investigation at once, while the flat recently drained heavy black land could wait a few years if necessary.

Percy first worked out the data for the Miami black clay loam. The chemist had analyzed the soil separates for only four constituents, and they showed the following amounts per acre of plowed soil to a depth of six and two-thirds inches, averaging two million pounds in weight:

2,970 pounds of phosphorus

38,500 pounds of potassium

18,440 pounds of magnesium

46,200 pounds of calcium

He then made the computations for the average of the Leonardtown loam of St. Mary County, Maryland, with results as follows:

160 pounds of phosphorus

18,500 pounds of potassium

3,480 pounds of magnesium

1,000 pounds of calcium

Percy stared at these figures when he brought them together for comparison. He then checked up his computations to be sure they were right.

"Almost twenty times as much phosphorus!" he said to himself. "Is it possible? And more than forty times as much calcium! Let me see! It takes one hundred and seventeen pounds of calcium for four tons of clover hay. The total amount in the plowed soil of the Leonardtown loam would not be sufficient for eight such crops; and six crops of corn such as we raised one year on our sixteen acres would take more phosphorus from the land than is now left in the plowed soil of this Leonardtown loam. The magnesium is not quite so bad—about one-fifth as much as in our black soil, and the potassium is almost one-half as much as we have."

Percy next turned to the Porters black loam, which he had noticed was to be found not many miles from Montplain. He thought he might induce Mr. West to drive with him to the upper mountain slope in order that they might see that land. His computations for the Porters black loam gave the following results:

4,630 pounds of phosphorus

48,300 pounds of potassium

12,360 pounds of magnesium

23,700 pounds of calcium

He viewed these figures a moment with evident satisfaction.

"Plenty of everything in this wonderful 'pippin land,'" he thought. "Big yields reported for everything suited to that altitude. 'Can be worked year after year without apparent impairment of its fertility,' so the Report stated. I should think it might, especially since clover is one of the crops grown. Both phosphorus and potassium are way above our best black land. Magnesium two-thirds and calcium one-half of our flat land, but still greater than our common prairie, according to the average they gave us at college. And no doubt there is plenty of magnesian limestone in these mountains which could be had if ever needed. The soil surveyor certainly did not say too much in praise of the Porters black loam, considering that its physical composition is also all right."

He worked out the Norfolk loam to see what he would get if he accepted Miss Russell's dare. The following are the figures:

610 pounds of phosphorus

13,200 pounds of potassium

1,200 pounds of magnesium

3,430 pounds of calcium

"Rather low in everything," said Percy, "compared with any soil I know that has a good reputation. More uniformly poor but not so extremely poor as the Leonardtown loam."

He wished that the nitrogen had been determined by the chemist, even though he knew the organic matter and the nitrogen must be very low in the poor soils, but nowhere was any such record to be found in the bulletin. He found the statement, however, that all data were reported on the basis of ignited soil.

"That will reduce some of these amounts about one-tenth," he said to himself. "In our physics work in college, good soils generally lost about ten per cent. in weight by ignition, even after all hygroscopic moisture had been expelled; but these very poor soils haven't much to lose, I guess. They surely contain no carbonates and very little organic matter, although they may contain some combined water."



CHAPTER XXIV

THE NATION'S CAPITOL



PERCY spent three days in Washington.

"If I lived here long," he wrote his mother, "I think I should become as optimistic as the Secretary of Agriculture, even though the total produce of the original thirteen states should supply a still smaller fraction of the necessities of life required by their population. The Congressional Library is by far the finest structure I have ever seen. I cannot help feeling proud that I am an American when I walk through its halls and look upon the portraits of the great men who helped to make our country truly great.

"As I shook hands with the President of the United States at one of his public receptions held in the 'East Room' of the White House, I wondered if there was another country on the earth where the humblest subject could thus come face to face with the head of a mighty nation. In the Treasury Building I was permitted to join a small party of some distinction and shared with each of them the privilege of holding in my hands for a moment eight million dollars in government bonds.

"I have visited many of the great buildings, the Capitol, of course, and Washington's monument, which rises to a height of 555 feet above the surrounding land, or practically 600 feet above low-water level in the Potomac. There are many smaller monuments erected in honor of American heroes in various squares, circles, and parks throughout the City.

"The zoological garden took a full half-day, and I could have spent a much longer time there. They told me of a frightful occurrence that happened only last week. In a pool of water a very large alligator is kept confined by a low stout iron fence. A negro woman was leaning over the fence holding her baby in her arms and looking at the monster who seemed to be asleep; when, without a moment's warning, he thrust himself half out of the water and snapped the baby from her arms, swallowing it at one gulp as he settled back into the water. I fear the report is true enough, for they have made the fence higher in a very temporary manner, and I heard it mentioned by a dozen or more.

"I leave Washington by boat at five o'clock this afternoon, and I expect to land at Leonardtown, St. Mary county, Maryland, about six o'clock in the morning, when the boat will be ready to leave that port. It is a freight boat and stops for hours at large towns.

"I am planning for a trip into New England next week. I did not realize how easy it is to go there until I looked up the train service. In less than twelve hours' time, one can make the trip from the Virginia line, through the District of Columbia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and into Massachusetts,—ten different states, including the District. The trip from Galena to Cairo can hardly be made in so short a time, not even on the limited Illinois Central trains."

An hour before leaving the Washington hotel Percy chanced to meet a Congressman whom he had seen on several occasions at the University and who had spoken at the alumni banquet at the time of Percy's graduation.

"I'm very glad you introduced yourself, Mr. Johnston," said he. "Want to get a place down here, do you? Very likely I can help you some. I've helped several friends of mine to get good places. What are you after ?"

"I am thinking of getting a place of about three hundred acres," said Percy, "and I shall certainly appreciate any assistance or information you can give me."

"Whe-e-ew. What are you up to? Want to sell us a site for the new Government insane hospital, or going to lay out another addition to the city?"

"Neither," replied Percy. "I am looking for a piece of cheap land that I can build up and make into a good farm."

"Oh, ho!" said the Congressman. "That's it, is it? Well, now let me tell you that you've struck the wrong neck of the woods to find land that you can make a good farm out of. The land about here is cheap enough all right—cheaper than the votes of some politicians, but it can't be built up into good farms. Don't attempt the impossible, my friend. If you want cheap land for town sites or insane hospitals, right here's the country to land in; but if you want a good farm, you stay right in Illinois, or else follow Horace Greeley's advice and 'go West.'. That's a good suggestion for you, too. Just go West and get three hundred and twenty acres of the richest soil lying out of doors."

"There is not much land left in the West where the rainfall is sufficient for good crops," said Percy.

"Then take irrigated land. The Government is getting under way some big irrigation projects, and you ought to get in on the ground floor on one of those tracts. It is a fact that the apples from some of those irrigated farms sometimes bring more than $500 an acre."

"I don't doubt that," said Percy. "An illustration or example can usually be found to prove almost anything. I know that the Perrine Brothers, who conduct a fruit farm down in 'Egypt,' actually received $800 per acre for the apples grown on thirteen acres one year; and there is plenty of such land in Egypt that can be bought for less than $40 an acre, and near to the great markets. I am told, however, that there are from a dozen to a hundred applicants for every farm opened to settlement in the West in these years, and it is estimated that all of the arid lands that can ever be put under irrigation in the United States will provide homes for no more than our regular increase in population in five years, and that the only other remaining rich lands—the swamp areas—will be occupied by the increase of ten years in our population. It has seemed to me that it is high time we came back to these partially worn-out Eastern lands and begin to build them up. Here the rainfall is abundant, the climate is fine, and the markets are the best, and there are millions of acres of these Eastern lands that lie as nicely for farming as the Western prairies. Why should they not be built up into good farms?"

"Now, let me give you a little fatherly advice," said the Congressman, laying his hand on Percy's shoulder. "I tell you this land never was any good. If the East and South hadn't been settled first, they never would have been settled. Poor land remains poor land, and good land remains good land; and if you want to farm good land, you better stay right in the corn belt. You can't grow anything on these Eastern lands without fertilizer and the more you fertilize the more you must, and still the land remains as poor as ever. Just leave off the fertilizer one year and your crop is not worth harvesting. These lands never were any good and they never will be."

"But that is hardly in accord with what the people now living on these old Eastern farms report for the conditions of agriculture in the times of their ancestors."

"Oh, yes, I know people are always talking about their ancestors, and especially Virginians; but, Caesar! I wonder what their ancestors would think of them! You can't afford to take any stock in the ancestry of these old Virginians."

"I call to mind that the historical records give much information along this line," said Percy. "It is recorded that mills for grinding corn and wheat were common, that the flour of Mount Vernon was packed under the eye of Washington, and we are told that barrels of flour bearing his brand passed in the export markets without inspection. History records that the plantations of Virginia usually passed from father to son, according to the law of entail, and that the heads of families lived like lords, keeping their stables of blooded horses and rolling to church or town in their coach and six, with outriders on horseback. Their spacious mansions were sometimes built of imported brick; and, within, the grand staircases, the mantles, and the wainscot reaching from floor to ceiling, were of solid mahogany, elaborately carved and paneled. The sideboards shone with gold and silver plate, and the tables were loaded with the luxuries from both the New and the Old World, and plenty of these old mansions still exist in dilapidated condition."

"That all sounds good for history," said the Congressman, "but the historian probably got his information from some of these old Virginians whose only religion is ancestral worship. If the lands were ever any good they'd be good now. Good lands stay good. As an Illinois man, you ought to know that. My father settled in Illinois and I tell you his land is better to-day than it was the day he took it from the Government."

"My grandfather also took land from the Government," said Percy, "but the land that he first put under cultivation is not producing as good crops now as it used to, even though—"

"Then it must be you don't farm it right. Of course you don't want to corn your land to death. I lived on the farm long enough to learn that; but if you'll only grow two or three crops of corn and then change to a crop of oats, you'll find your land ready for corn again; and, if you'll sow clover with the oats and plow the clover under the next spring, you'll find the land will grow more corn than ever your grandfather grew on it."

"But how can we maintain the supply of plant food in the soil by merely substituting oats for corn once in three or four years and turning under perhaps a ton of clover as green manure. That amount of clover would contain no more nitrogen than 40 bushels of corn would remove from the soil, and of course the clover has no power to add any phosphorus or other mineral elements."

"Oh, yes. I've heard all about that sort of talk. You know I'm a U. of I. man myself. I studied chemistry in the University under a man who knew more in a minute than all the 'tommy rot' you've been filled up with. I also lived on an Illinois farm, and I speak from practical experience. I know what I am talking about, and I don't care a rap for all the theories that can be stacked up by your modern college professor, who wouldn't know a pumpkin if he met one rolling down hill. I tell you God Almighty never made the black corn belt land to be worn out, and he doesn't create people on this earth to let 'em starve to death. Don't you understand that?"

"I am afraid that I do not," replied Percy. "I have received no such direct communication; but I saw a letter written from China by a missionary describing the famine-stricken districts in which he was located. He wrote the letter in February and said that at that time the only practical thing to do in that district was to let four hundred thousand people starve and try to get seed grain for the remainder to plant the spring crops. I have a "Handbook of Indian Agriculture" written by a professor of agriculture and agricultural chemistry at one of the colleges in India. I got it from one of the Hindu students who attended the University when I was there. This book states that famine, local or general, has been the order of the day in India, and particularly within recent years. It also states that in one of the worst famines in India ten million people died of starvation within nine months. The average wage of the laboring man in India, according to the Governmental statistics, is fifty cents a month, and in famine years the price of wheat has risen to as high as $3.60 a bushel. This writer states that the most recent of all famines; namely, that prevailing in most parts of India from 1897 to 1900, was severer than the famine of 1874 to 1878. No, Sir, I am not sure that I understand just what God's intentions are concerning the corn belt, but it is recorded that the Lord helps him who helps himself, and that man should earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. If God made the common soil in America with a limited amount of phosphorus in it, He also stored great deposits of natural rock phosphate in the mines of several States, and perhaps intended that man should earn his bread by grinding that rock and applying it to the soil. Possibly the Almighty intended—"

"Now, I'm very sorry, Mr. Johnston, but I have an engagement which I must keep, and you'll have to excuse me just now. I'm mighty glad to have met you and I'd like to talk with you for an hour more along this line; but you take my advice and stick to the corn belt land. Above all, don't begin to use phosphates or any sort of commercial fertilizer; they'll ruin any land in a few years; that's my opinion. But then, every man has a right to his own opinion. and perhaps you have a different notion. Eh?"

"I think no man has a right to an opinion which is contrary to fact," Percy replied. "This whole question is one of facts and not of opinions. One fact is worth more than a wagonload of incorrect opinions. But I must not detain you longer. I am very glad to have met you here. In large measure the statesmen of America must bear the responsibility for the future condition of agriculture and the other great industries of the United States, all of which depend upon agriculture for their support and prosperity. Good bye."

"I'll agree with you there all right; the farmer feeds them all. Good bye."



CHAPTER XXV

A LESSON ON TOBACCO



PERCY found Leonardtown almost in the center of St. Mary county, situated on Breton bay, an arm of the lower Potomac.

From the data recorded on the back of his map of Maryland, Percy noted that a population of four hundred and fifty-four found support in this old county seat, according to the census of I 900. After spending the day in the country, he found himself wondering how even that number of people could be supported, and then remembered that there is one industry of some importance in the United States which exists independent of agriculture, an industry which preceded agriculture, and which evidently has also succeeded agriculture to a very considerable extent in some places; namely, fishing.

"Clams, oysters and fish, and in this order," he said to himself, "apparently constitute the means of support for some of these people."

And yet the country was not depopulated, although very much of the arable land was abandoned for agricultural purposes. A farm of a hundred acres might have ten acres under cultivation, this being as much as the farmer could "keep up," as was commonly stated. This meant that all of the farm manure and other refuse that could be secured from the entire farm or hauled from the village, together with what commercial fertilizer the farmer was able to buy, would not enable him to keep more than ten acres of land in a state of productiveness that justified its cultivation. Tobacco, corn, wheat and cowpeas were the principal crops. Corn was the principal article of food, with wheat bread more or less common. The cowpeas and corn fodder usually kept one or more cows through the winter when they could not secure a living in the brush. Tobacco, the principal "money crop," was depended on to buy clothing, and "groceries," which included more or less fish and pork, although some farmers "raised their own meat," in part by fattening hogs on the acorns that fell in the autumn from the scrub oak trees.

One farm of one hundred and ninety acres owned by an old lady, who lived in the nearby country village was rented for $100 a year, which amounted to about fifty-two and one-half cents an acres as the gross income to the landowner. After the taxes were paid, about thirty cents an acre remained for repairs on buildings and fences and interest on the investment.

Percy spent some time on a five hundred acre farm belonging to an old gentleman who still gave his name as F. Allerton Jones, a man whose father had been prominent in the community. According to the county soil map which had been presented to Percy by the Bureau of Soils, the soil of this farm was all Leonardtown loam, except about forty acres which occupied the sides of a narrow valley a bend of which cut the farm on the south side.

"My father had this whole farm under cultivation," said Mr. Jones, "except the hillsides. But what's the use? We get along with a good deal less work, and I've found it better to cultivate less ground during the forty odd years I've had to meet the bills. But I've kept up more of my land than most of my neighbors. I reckon I've got about eighty acres of good cleared land yet on this farm, and the leaves and pine needles we rake up where the trees grow on the old fields make a good fertilizer for the land we aim to cultivate, and I get a good many loads of manure from friends who live in the village and keep a cow or a horse.

"The last crop I raised on that east field, where you see those scrub pines, was in 1881. I finished cultivating corn there the day I heard about President Garfield being shot; and it was a mighty hot July day too. My neighbor, Seth Whitmore, who died about ten years ago, came along from the village and waited for me to come to the end of the row down by the road and he told me that Garfield was shot. We both allowed the corn would be a pretty fair crop and when I gathered the fodder that fall there was a right smart of a corn crop. Yes, Sir, it's pretty good land, but we don't need much corn, no how, and we can make more money out of tobacco. Of course it takes lots of manure and fertilizer to grow a good patch of tobacco, but good tobacco always brings good money."

"About how much money do you get for an acre of tobacco?" asked Percy.

"That varies a lot with the quality and price—sometimes $100—sometimes $300, when the trust don't hold the price down on us. We can raise good tobacco and good tobacco brings us good money. We can always manure an acre or two for tobacco and get our groceries and some clothes now and then, and that's about all anybody gets in this world, I reckon. But taxes are mighty high, I tell you. About $75 to $80 I have to pay. Are taxes high out West?"

"We pay about forty to fifty cents an acre in the corn belt," Percy replied; "but, in a course I took in economics, I learned that the taxes do not vary in proportion to land values. Poor lands, if inhabited, must always pay heavy taxes; whereas, large areas of good land carry lighter taxes compared with their earning capacity. You must provide your regular expenses for county officers, county courthouse, jail, and poorhouse, about the same as we do. Your roads and bridges cost as much as ours; and the schools in the South must cost more than ours, for a complete double system of schools is usually provided.

"But did you say that you paid fifty cents an acre in taxes?" asked Mr. Jones.

"Yes, about that, in the corn belt," replied Percy, "but not so much in Southern Illinois where the land is poor. I think the farmers in that section pay taxes as low as yours. Perhaps twenty cents an acre."

"Do you mean to say that you have poor land in Illinois?"

"Yes, the common prairie land of Southern Illinois must be called poor as compared with the corn belt land. There is a good deal of land in Southern Illinois that was put under cultivation before 1820, and eighty crops must have made a heavy draft upon the store of plant food originally contained in those soils."

"Only since 1820? Why, we began to till the soil right here, Young Man, in St. Mary County, in 1634 and don't you know, Sir, that we had a rebellion here as early as 1645? Yes, Sir, that was one hundred and seventy-five years before 1820. So you've raised only eighty crops and the land is already getting poor, and we've raised two hundred and fifty crops—well, maybe, not quite so many, for we've been giving our land a good deal of rest for the last fifty or sixty years; but my grandfather used to raise twenty-five bushels of wheat to the acre with the help of a hundred pounds of land-plaster, and I've no doubt I could do it again today if I cared to raise wheat, but one acre of tobacco is worth ten of wheat, so why should I bother with wheat?"

"Twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre," repeated Percy, half to himself. "The total supply of phosphorus still remaining in the plowed soil would be sufficient for only twenty more crops like that. Two hundred years of such crops would require 1600 pounds of phosphorus, making nearly 1800 pounds at the beginning, if it all came from the plowed soil. That is one and a half times as much as is now contained in our common corn belt prairie land."

"More stuff in our land than in yours, did you say?" questioned the old man. "I told you we had pretty good soil here, but I've always allowed your soil was better, but maybe not. I tell you manure lasts on this land. You can see where you put it for nigh twenty years. Then we rest our land some and that helps a sight, and if the price stays up we make good money on tobacco. I'm sorry your land is getting so poor out West, especially if you can't raise tobacco. Ever tried tobacco, Young Man?—gosh, but you remind me of one of them Government fellows who came driving along here once when Bob and his brothers were plowing corn right here about three years ago. Bob's my tenant's nigger, and he ain't no fool either, even if he is colored; but then, to tell the truth, he ain't much colored. Well, I was sitting under a tree right here smoking and keeping an eye on the niggers unbeknownst to them when one of them Government fellows stopped his horse as Bob was turning the end, and says he to Bob:

"'Your corn seems to be looking mighty yellow?'

"'Yes, suh,' says Bob. 'Yes, suh, we done planted yellow corn.'

"'Well, I mean it looks as though you won't get more than half a crop,' says he.

"'I reckon not,' says Bob. 'The landlord, he done gets the other half.'

"With that the fellow says to Bob:

"'It seems to me you're mighty near a fool.'

"'Yes, suh,' says Bob, 'and I'm mighty feared I'll catch it if I don't get a goin'.'

"The fellow just gave his horse a cut and drove on, but I liked to died. He'd been here two or three times pestering me with questions about raising tobacco. Say, you ain't one of them Government fellows, are you? They were travelling all around over this county three years ago, learning how we raised tobacco and all kinds of crops. They had augers and said they were investigating soils, but I never heard nothing of 'em since. Have you got an auger to investigate soils with?"

Percy was compelled to admit that he had an auger and that he was trying to learn all he could about the soil.

He had driven to Mr. Jones' farm because his land happened to be situated in a large area of Leonardtown loam, and he felt free to stop and talk with him because he had found him leaning against the fence, smoking a cob pipe, apparently trying to decide what to do with some small shocks of corn scattered over a field of about fifteen acres.

Percy stepped to the buggy and drew out his soil auger, then returned to the corn field and begun to bore a hole near where Mr. Jones was standing.

"That's the thing," said he, "the same kind of an auger them fellows had three years ago. Still boring holes, are you? Want to bore around over my farm again, do you?"

Percy replied that he would be glad to make borings in several places in order that he might see about what the soil and subsoil were like in that kind of land.

"That's all right, Young Man. Just bore as many holes as you please. I suppose you'd rather do that than work; but you'll have to excuse me. I've got a lot to do today, and it's already getting late. I can't take time again to tell you fellows how to raise tobacco. Good day."



CHAPTER XXVI

ANOTHER LESSON ON TOBACCO



THE old man had stuck his cob pipe in a pocket and filled his mouth with a chew of tobacco.

He walked by Percy's buggy with the tobacco juice drizzling from the corners of his mouth, and turned down the road toward the house.

Percy finished boring the hole and then returned to the buggy.

"Christ, that old man eats tobacco like a beast!" exclaimed the driver as Percy approached.

"Are you speaking to me?" asked Percy.

"Why, certainly."

"That is not my name, please," admonished Percy, "but I can tell you that I know Him well and that He is my best friend."

"What, old Al Jones?"

"No,—Christ," replied Percy, with a grieved expression plainly discernible.

"Oh," said the driver.

They drove past the Jones residence and out into the field beyond. The house one might have thought deserted except for the well-beaten paths and the presence of chickens in the yard. It was a large structure with two and a half stories. The cornice and window trimmings revealed the beauty and wealth of former days. Rare shrubs still grew in the spacious front yard, and gnarled remnants of orchard trees were to be seen in the rear. A dozen other buildings, large and small, occupied the background, some with the roofs partly fallen, others evidently still in use.

"How old do you suppose these buildings are?" asked Percy of the driver.

"About a hundred years," he replied, "and I reckon they've had no paint nor fixin' since they was built, 'cept they have to give some of 'em new shingles now and then or they'd all fall to pieces like the old barns back yonder."

Percy examined the soil in several places on the Jones farm and on other farms in the neighborhood. They lunched on crackers and canned beans at a country store and made a more extended drive in the afternoon.

"It is a fine soil," Percy said to the driver, as they started for Leonardtown. "It contains enough sand for easy tillage and quick drainage, and enough clay to hold anything that might be applied to it."

"That's right," said the driver. "Where they put plenty of manure and fertilizer they raise tobacco three foot high and fifteen hundred pounds to the acre, but where they run the tobacco rows beyond the manured land so's to be sure and not lose any manure, why the stuff won't grow six inches high and it just turns yellow and seems to dry up, no matter if it rains every day. Say, Mister, would you mind telling me if you're a preacher?"

"Oh, no," replied Percy, "—I am not a preacher, any more than every Christian must be loyal to the name."

"Well, anyway, I've learned a lesson I'll try to remember. I never thought before about how it might hurt other people when I swear. I don't mean nothing by it. It's just a habit; but your saying Christ is your friend makes me feel that I have no business talking about anybody's friend, any more than I'd like to hear anybody else use my mother's name as a by-word. I reckon nobody has any right to use Christ's name 'cept Christians or them as wants to be Christians. I reckon we'd never heard the name if it hadn't a been for the Christians.

"But I don't have so many bad habits. I don't drink, nor smoke, nor chew; and I don't want to. My father smoked some and chewed a lot, and I know the smell of tobacco used to make my mother about as sick as she could be; but she had to stand it, or at least she did stand it till father died; and now she lives with me, and I'm mighty glad she don't have to smell no more tobacco

"She often speaks of it—mother does; and she says she's so thankful she's got a boy that don't use tobacco. She says men that use tobacco don't know how bad it is for other folks to smell 'em. Why, sometimes I come home when I've just been driving a man some place in the country, riding along like you and I are now, and he a smoking or chewing, or at least his clothes soaked full of the vile odor; and when I get home mother says, 'My! but you must have had an old stink pot along with you to-day.' She can smell it on my clothes, and I just hang my coat out in the shed till the scent gets off from it.

"No, Sir, I don't want any tobacco for me, and I don't know as I'd care to raise the stuff for other folks to saturate themselves with either; and every kid is allowed to use it nowadays, or at least most of them get it. It's easy enough to get it. Why, a kid can't keep away from getting these cigarettes, if he tries. They're everywhere. Every kid has hip pockets full; and I know blamed well that some smoke so many cigarettes they get so they aren't more than half bright. It's a fact, Sir,—plenty of 'em too; and some old men, like Al Jones, are just so soaked in tobacco they seem about half dead. Course it ain't like whiskey, but I think it's worse than beer if beer didn't make one want whiskey later.

"But as I was saying, I feel that I have no business saying things about,—about anybody you call your friend, and I think I'll just swear off swearing, if I can."

"You can if you will just let Him be your friend."

"Well, I don't know much about that," was the slow reply. "That takes faith, and I don't have much faith in some of the church members I know."

"That used to trouble me also," said Percy, "until one time the thought impressed itself upon me that even Christ himself did all His great work with one of the twelve a traitor; and this thought always comes to me now when self-respecting men object to uniting with organized Christianity because of those who may be regarded as traitors or hypocrites, but not of such flagrant character as to insure expulsion from the Church?"

"Do you believe in miracles?" asked the driver.

"Oh, yes," said Percy, "in such miracles as the growth of the corn plant."

"Why, that isn't any miracle. Everybody understands all about that."

"Not everybody," replied Percy. "There is only One who understands it. There is only one great miracle, and that is the miracle of life. It is said that men adulterate coffee, even to the extent of making the bean or berry so nearly like the natural that it requires an expert to detect the fraud; but do you think an imitation seed would grow?"

"No, it wouldn't grow," said the driver.

"Not only that," said Percy, "but we may have a natural and perfect grain of corn and it can never be made to grow by any or all of the knowledge and skill of men, if for a single instant the life principle has left the kernel, which may easily result by changing its temperature a few degrees above or below the usual range. The spark of life returns to God who gave it, and man is as helpless to restore it as when he first walked the earth.

"What miracle do you find hard to accept?" asked Percy.

"How could Jesus know that Lazarus had died when he was on the other side of the mountain?"

"I don't know," Percy replied; "perhaps by some sort of wireless message which his soul could receive. I don't know how, but it was no greater miracle than it would have been then to have done what I did last week."

The driver turned to look squarely at Percy as though in doubt of his sanity, but a kindly smile reassured him.

"Our train coming into Cincinnati ran in two sections," Percy continued, "and the section behind us was wrecked, three travellers being killed and about fifteen others wounded. I was sure my mother would hear of the wreck before I could reach her with a letter, and so I talked with her from Cincinnati over the long distance 'phone, with which we have always had connection since I first went away to college. Yes, I talked with her, and, though separated by a distance three times the entire length of Palestine, I distinctly heard and recognized my mother's voice. Oh, yes, I believe in miracles; but that is a matter of small consequence. The important thing is that we have faith in God and faith in Jesus Christ, his Son."

"Well, that's what troubles me," said the driver. "How's one to get faith?"

"There are two methods of receiving faith," replied Percy. "Faith cometh by prayer." "Yes, Sir, I believe that." "And, faith cometh by hearing." "Hearing what?" "Hearing by the Word of God; hearing those who have studied His Word and who testify of Him; and hearing with an ear ready to receive the truth."