In a former communication to your excellent magazine I recommended as the proper application of manure, surface and plowed under. My reason for this was that vegetation might feed on it with the two systems of roots, coronal and germinal, upper and lower. There is another very great advantage accruing from it, that is, in a dry time the keeping of the earth loose. I treated my main garden in this way, and throughout the disastrous drouth we have had it has worked like an ash bank. Gardens about me became so hard that a spade would not enter them. I kept up the cultivation of this garden throughout the drouth. Quick growth is what is required for crisp, tender vegetables. Well rotted manure promotes it. Manure plowed under attracts the roots downward. Herein is a very decided advantage. There is abundant natural fertility deeply incorporated in the earth. We should aim to reach it. From not working to that end, and from not plowing deep, this buried treasure is often lost.

Mr. Henry Stewart informs us that it impossible to really exhaust the soil. He writes: " The soil is inexhaustible. We might as well hope to pump the ocean dry, or to reduce atmospheric space to a vacuum, as to wholly exhaust the soil. One acre of soil eighteen inches deep weighs eight million pounds. This soil contains, at a moderate estimate, twelve thousand pounds, or six tons of phosphoric acid, ten thousand pounds of nitrogen and from twenty to eighty thousand pounds of potash. If no organic matter were ever to be added to the soil in the shape of manure or waste from crops or weeds, the land might be cultivated for centuries before it would be exhausted eighteen inches deep. So that 'exhaustion of the soil' is a term used in a comparative sense wholly, and is not an absolute or possible conception."

Now, to induce roots to penetrate deeply is to bring immense stores of valuable nutriment to the plants. The length to which roots extend is surprising. Powerful manure stimulates them to vastly augmented penetrative force. The coronal, or surface roots must be provided for. They are greedy scavengers. Manure spread upon the surface subserves another very valuable purpose. If plentiful it keeps the earth moister by arresting the ascent of the earth moisture. There is always capillary attraction at work, that is, the ascension of moisture from below the surface to the surface. Now, any obstacle which checks it holds the moisture. This is clearly shown by the damp under surface of stones lying on top of the ground. Manure, when abundant, acts in the same way. Again, the rich elements permeating the soil are ever escaping into the air. They can be retained, as we have shown, with earth moisture. This is important, for their arrested progress is so much food for vegetation. This principle of arrest is a leading feature in shading ground. Land left bare throughout the year is losing much. It is not the proper kind of fallow. It should be kept stirred and thoroughly pulverized.

Fining soil is productive of moisture in two ways; it interrupts capillary attraction, and also absorbs atmospheric moisture. This is why cultivation should not be suspended during a drouth. It interrupts capillary attraction in this way. When the earth is compact the internal moisture ascends rapidly and easily, and is dissipated, because there are no open spaces for it to cross. When the soil is broken into minute particles the moisture must take longer in getting from one to the other of these particles. When the ground is loose and porous it catches atmospheric moisture much as does a sponge. The old theory that there must be clods for best results is untenable. It is unphilosophical. Roots do not penetrate clods, but simply enfold, embrace them, and so fail of obtaining the full strength of the soil. Earth comminuted admits the sun's rays better, which from their actinic power help both plant and soil.