given better results than the burned lime. In fact the burned lime
seems to have produced injurious results of late years, and the
analysis of the soil shows that there has been large loss of humus
and nitrogen where the burned lime has been used, the actual loss
being equivalent to the destruction of more than two tons of farm
manure per acre per annum."

"Well, we surely need this information," said Mr. Thornton. "I have
always supposed that the teachers in the agricultural college knew
little or nothing of practical farming."

"I did not go to college to learn practical farming, if we mean by
that the common practice of agriculture," replied Percy. "I already
knew what we call practical farming; that is, how to do the ordinary
farm work, including such operations as plowing, planting,
cultivating, and harvesting; but it seems to me, Mr. Thornton, that
this sort of practical farming has resulted in practical ruin for
most of these Eastern lands. The fact is there is a side to
agriculture that I knew almost nothing about as a so-called
practical farmer, and I am coming to believe that what we commonly
call practical farming is often the most impractical
farming,--certainly this is true if it ultimately results in
depleted and abandoned lands. The truly practical farmer is the man
who knows not only how to do, but also what to do and why he does
it. The Simplon railroad tunnel connecting Switzerland with Italy is
twelve miles long,--the longest in the world. It was dug from the
two ends, but under the mountain, six miles from either end, the two
holes came together exactly, within a limit of error of less than
six inches, and made one continuous tunnel twelve miles long. Now,
this was not all accomplished by the practical men who knew how to