"I plowed under a crop of buckwheat once," said the squire, discontentedly,
"and I didn't see much good from it, except that the ground was light and
mellow afterward."

"That, at least, was a gain," Leonard continued; "but I can tell you why
your ground was not much benefited, and perhaps injured. You scarcely
plowed under a green crop, for I remember that the grain in your
buckwheat straw was partly ripe. It is the forming seed or grain that
takes the substance out of land. You should have plowed the buckwheat
under just as it was coming into blossom. Up to that time the chief
growth had been derived from the air, and there had been very little
drain upon the soil."

"Well!" exclaimed the squire, incredulously, "I didn't know the air was
so nourishing."

Webb had been showing increasing signs of disquietude during the last few
moments, and now said, with some emphasis: "It seems to me, squire, that
there is not much hope of our farming successfully unless we do know
something of the materials that make our crops, and the conditions under
which they grow. When you built your house you did not employ a man who
had only a vague idea of how it was to be constructed, and what it was to
be built of. Before your house was finished you had used lumber as your
chief material, but you also employed brick, stone, lime, sand, nails,
etc. If we examine a house, we find all these materials. If we wish to
build another house, we know we must use them in their proper proportions.
Now it is just as much a matter of fact, and is just as capable of proof,
that a plant of any kind is built up on a regular plan, and from
well-defined materials, as that a house is so built. The materials in
various houses differ just as the elements in different kinds of plants