Man is made of the "dust of the ground.' What he is must depend very largely upon the kind of soil of which he is made, We get our soil after it has been prepared for us by the plant kingdom. The plant is limited in its preparation, to the soil at hand.

The composition of the soil not only determines to a large extent the character of plant development, but it equally determines the character of the development of man. Soil culture will finally come to be recognized to be equally as important as soul culture. Someday the ethnologist and the preacher will come to the trophologist and agriculturist and ask to be taught of these. Sylvester Graham, who was among the first to point out the evils of our present fertilizer follies, declared plants are deteriorated on such soil and that the meat, milk and butter of animals fed on these plants are deteriorated and adds: "Surely the immediate effects of such deteriorated vegetable aliment on the human system must be very considerable." He also declared that it is "most certain, that until the agriculture of our country is conducted in strict accordance with physiological truth, it is not possible for us to realize those physical and intellectual and moral and social and civil blessings for which the human constitution and our soil and climate are naturally capacitated."

When vegetables are grown in soil and their produce removed each year, the soil is sapped of its minerals. The soil is denatured. Efforts to restore a denatured soil by the use of an even more denatured fertilizer is as absurd as would be the effort to restore a body, suffering from mineral deficiencies, to normal by feeding it white flour, polished rice, canned goods and pasteurized milk. Sylvester Graham, Baron von Liebig, Dr. Julius Hensel. Dr. Lahmann, Otto Carque, Prof. Frank M. Keith, Sampson Morgan and others, have warned of the evils of our present agricultural madness.

Plants derive their carbon and nitrogen largely from the air, their minerals from the soil. A crop of wheat yielding 20 bushels of wheat and 2 tons of straw per acre removes 259.2 pounds of minerals from an acre of land. A crop of oats yielding 40 bushels of oats and 2 tons of straw per acre removes from an acre of soil 283.6 pounds of minerals. Some crops cause a greater drain upon the soil than do wheat and oats. The growing and harvesting of crops represents a steady drain on the minerals of the soil and a steadily diminishing fertility until, finally, it becomes incapable of producing wholesome foods.

Much of our soil is denatured. Our crops are being fed a "white flour" diet. They are suffering from "scurvy." An orthodox food scientist says: "Vegetables may be lacking in those necessary proximate principles if grown upon soil unsuited for their proper nutrition, or if deprived of sunlight. Milk may be lacking in these principles if the cow is fed upon provender grown upon impoverished soil. The same is true of the meat of animals fed upon faulty provender." The health and development of man and animal is determined by the soil upon which they feed.

The fertilizing of the ground of Warnham Park (England) with bone dirt every alternate year, "added 70 per cent to the nutrimental qualities of the grass, accounting for the immense improvement since Mr. F. M. Luca's plan was tried, a four-year-old Warnham stag being better than an adult animal in most other English parks."

Texas cattle are, on an average, much larger than Florida cattle, but there are differences almost as great between the cattle in one county and those of another, and perhaps adjoining county in Texas. In a county where the soil is poor, cattle are smaller than those in a county possessing fertile soil.

These facts teach us that the proper fertilization of land is of most importance to those of us who eat the produce of the soil. If the soil is poor, our foods will be poor and our health and development will be correspondingly poor.

The food value of vegetables depends largely upon the soil in which they are grown. Continued cultivation depletes and impoverishes the soil. So does the washing away of the soil by water which is unimpeded by timber. Prevailing methods of fertilization actually unbalance the soil and introduce into it three or four elements only. Most of the valuable minerals needed by plant life are not returned to the soil by commercial and barn yard fertilizers.

Our farmers and agricultural experts insist on making us out of manure and animal waste from the packing houses. Manure-fed plants mean manure-fed minds and bodies. For many years agricultural ex-spurts have taught that nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid are the three elements necessary to add to the soil in order to assure maximum crop yields. During the same period farmers have had to deal with ever lessening crop yields despite the unlimited use of manures and fertilizers. They are also confronted with a progressive lessening of the resistance of their crops in insect pests and plant diseases.

Nitrogen-potash-phosphoric acid fertilizers act largely as stimulants. They produce rapid, rank growth, but the plant is lacking in strength, stability and resistance to insect pests. The plants do not acquire stiffness and strength and their organs lack "a certain solidity and power of resistance against those external causes which endanger their existence." Plants really need but little phosphoric acid and an excess does them harm. The first world war cut of our potash supply and we learned that we could grow crops without this.

Animal fertilizers introduce an excess of nitrogen into the soil. This lays the plants liable to insect pests and deteriorates their qualities in every important particular. Luther Burbank says: "What happens when we overfeed a plant, especially an unbalanced ration? Its root system, its leaf system, its trunk, its whole body is impaired. It becomes engorged. Following this, comes devitalization. It is open to attacks of disease. It will be easily assailed by fungus diseases and insect pests. It rapidly and abnormally grows onward to its death."

An excess of nitrogen retards the formation of roots, tubers and grains and produces sickly plants. In cereals it "leads to a bright green color, to a copious growth of soft sappy tissues, liable in insect and fungoid pests (apparently because of the thinning of the walls and some change in the composition of the sap), and to retarded ripening." Too much straw is produced and the grain is of poor quality. A similar thing is seen in clover.

Potato plants produce more leaves as the nitrogen supply is increased, but no more roots and no more tubers. Under like conditions tomato plants produce an abundance of leaves, but very little fruit. Excess nitrogen unfits cabbage, spinach, lettuce, etc., to withstand the rough handling of the market.

Plants are cross-feeders and thrive best on mineral food. Soil is disintegrated rock (mineral) and vegetable amalgamations (humus). It is clean, as Mr. Morgan points out. This kind of soil does not produce the weak, watery, unhealthy plants of the food market. Mineralized humus will produce clean soil. Nothing else will.