The Story of the Soil; from the Basis of Absolute Science and Real Life

"Oh, Thou, whose presence bright all space doth occupy and all motion guide, all life impart, we come this morning in the capacity of this Farmers' Institute to thank thee for T...

"Lucky for us you got back before the Thanksgiving scraps are all gone," she said to Percy, "but I suppose even our Thanksgiving fare will be poor picking after you've been livi...

MY DEAR SIR:--I have read with very great interest your article in the November _World's Work _on "What We Must Do to be Fed." I wonder if you read _The American Farm Review!_ I...

"THE subject is somewhat complicated," Percy replied, "yet it involves no more difficult problems than have been solved in many other lines. The chief trouble is that we have do...

AS we were riding to Montplain yesterday," said Adelaide to Percy, soon after they started for Blue Mound, "Professor Barstow told me that in his opinion all that was needed to...

MY DEAR SIR:--I have delayed writing to you in regard to the plans for Poorland Farm, until I could feel that we are able at least to make an outline of tentative nature. The la...

PERCY took a lesson in turning the cream separator and after dinner Mrs. Thornton assured him that she and her sister were greatly disappointed that they had not been permitted...

"NOW let us give Mr. Johnston a chance to tell us about the nitrogen problem," said Mr. Thornton. "I'm pretty well satisfied with the natural circulation of carbon, oxygen, and...

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...

PERCY carried with him a most interesting and attractive circular of information concerning the rapid restoration of the farm lands of the South. It also stated that further inf...

THE next forenoon Percy and Mr. West spent some time making some further tests with hydrochloric acid and litmus paper in different places on the farm; but the result only confi...

WITH an auger in his hand, by means of which a hole could be quickly bored into the soil to a depth of three or four feet, Percy joined Mr. West for the tramp over the plantation.

WHEN Percy and his mother reached Poorland Farm in March they found a small frame house needing only shingles, paint, and paper to make it a fairly comfortable home, until they...

AFTER leaving Rhode Island, Percy spent two days in and about Boston, and then returned to Connecticut for a day. The weather had turned cold; the ground had frozen and the fall...

DEAR father and mother: I can scarcely realize that I have been an "Egyptian" for almost two years. I feel that the time has been shorter than two months of school-teaching.

"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 state...

"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 co...

"Mother dearest," he said, "it was a year ago that you said I would have only till this fail to decide upon my college course and that it should be a special preparation for my...

"There are almost as great variations among the negroes as among white people," Mr. West was saying. "To a man like Wilkes who was born and raised here on the farm, I would entr...

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 c...

Mr. Robbins' farm lay in what appeared to be an ancient valley, several miles in width, although only a small stream now winds through it to the sea seven miles away.

MY DEAR SIR:--I beg to report that I returned home a few days ago and found my mother well and busy as usual. We have definitely decided that we will not accept your kind offer...

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...

MY DEAR Friend:--We were delighted to receive your interesting letter of March 2, describing the Farmer's Institute. I have been to two such meetings in Virginia, but they are d...

"Well, I know it's about as poor as poor can be; but it was not always poor, I can tell you. When I was a girl, if this farm did not produce five or six thousands bushels of whe...

AS Percy stepped out of the house in the early afternoon upon the announcement from Wilkes that "De ca'age is ready," he noted that the "ca'age" was the two-seated family carria...

"That's only because I interrupt and ask so many side questions," replied Mr. Thornton, "but I hope yet to learn more about those 'suitable conditions' for nitrogen-fixation and...

PERCY JOHNSTON'S grandfather had gone west from "York State" and secured from the federal government a 160-acre "Claim" of the rich corn belt land. His father had received throu...

"The eye is the window of the soul," thought Percy, as he met the glance of Adelaide sitting opposite. Certain he was that he had never before looked into such alluring eyes.

"And I verily believe," he added, "that if Terry were to wake up some morning and find himself located on the "Barrens" of the Highland Rim of Tennessee, he would start out with...

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 laborato...

acre once in ten years, whereas he grew from twenty-five to forty bushels per acre in a five-year rotation; and I don't see that there is any particular connection between the g...

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 wo...

"That is very kind of you," Percy replied. "I want especially to learn some of the things you know about the soils of Westover. Can you show me the best land and the poorest lan...

"Mostly in the agricultural college," replied Percy, "but much of the information really comes from the investigations that are conducted by the experiment stations. For example...

PERCY read these words as though they were his own; and perhaps we may say they were his own, for, as Emerson says: "Thought is the property of him who can entertain it."

THE goddess of sleep seemed to have deserted Westover. Adelaide lay in her mother's arms, either awake and restless or in fitful sleep from which she frequently awoke with a muf...

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 an...

"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 ye...

PERCY planned to walk to Blue Mound to take the three-thirty train that Saturday afternoon; but Adelaide's parents both insisted that she would willingly drive to the station, a...

No one realized more than Percy Johnston that toleration of life itself was possible to him only because of the world of work that he found always at hand in connection with his...

PERCY JOHNSTON stood waiting on the broad veranda of an old-style Southern home, on a bright November day in 1903. He had just come from Blue Mound Station, three miles away, wi...

"WELL, I reckon the cowboy's gone back to 'tend to his cows," remarked the grandmother to Adelaide, as she returned from taking Percy to Blue Mound and found the old lady sittin...