Charlotte Legg, age 8, of Frankford! W. Va., for her question:

What is the most important form of life in the soil?

Every patch of rich soil teems with tiny tenants. There are boatloads, insects and insect eggs of all kinds, There are grubs# worms and spiders, Maybe there are larger fellows the moles and mice, There are also creatures too small for our eyes to see, Every shovelful of soil is home to millions of them.  They are the minute molds and bacteria, Each of these creatures would tell you if he could, that he is the most important tenant of the soil.

In a way he would be right for his most important job is to keep himself alive. He must struggle to feed and grow and to hand on life, It is Mother Nature who makes the overall plans for the soil population, And she gives that honor to no one. To her, all the little creatures are of equal importance.

Nature seems to want a variety of children, She gives them all a chance to live, But she checks each different kind from becoming too plentiful. Otherwise the rest would suffer, This balance of nature keeps a certain number of creatures alive, but not too many of each kind,

Now which tenant of the soil is most important to us? The answer is that each one helps make the soil richer for our fields and gardens, This is true even of the soil population that seems to be a nuisance, The busy mole digs up mounds on the lawn. But his tunnels also let needed air and water deep into the soil. He eats a few lily bulbs. He also eats a lot of grubs and bugs that would feed upon our crop plants, Mr. Mole is a mixed blessing to the soil. But he does more good than harm. This is true of most of the little rodents that burrow in the soil,

The earthworm certainly does more good than harm, His burrows ventilate and water the earth, He eats the earth down below and empties it on the surface„ The earthworm turns over the soil like a plowman. He also helps to clean up the garden by eating old leaves, He does as much as any creature to make the soil rich and loamy.

We think that beetles and insects are harmless so long as they leave our plants alone. Some of them however, cause more harm than good and must be destroyed. However., even the worst of them does some good to the soil, Their bodies are food for more useful creatures.  Often they or their eggs perish in the ground. They decay and are broken up into the simple chemicals our plants need for food,

The soil is the burial place as well as the homes for its tenants, But the remains are never wasted  far from it. Tiny, garbage men break up the used bodies into plant food, This job is usually started by beetles and insects. Then the minute molds and bacteria take over. When the work is done, only simple chemicals are left to enrich the soil.

Some of these little molds destroy other molds that attack our bodies, Auriomycin is a medicine made from one such mold, Now how can you choose which of the little, earth‑dwellers is most important? Each has his own importance and all work together to make the soil rich.