"Plenty of everything in this wonderful 'pippin land,'" he thought.
"Big yields reported for everything suited to that altitude. 'Can be
worked year after year without apparent impairment of its
fertility,' so the Report stated. I should think it might,
especially since clover is one of the crops grown. Both phosphorus
and potassium are way above our best black land. Magnesium
two-thirds and calcium one-half of our flat land, but still greater
than our common prairie, according to the average they gave us at
college. And no doubt there is plenty of magnesian limestone in
these mountains which could be had if ever needed. The soil surveyor
certainly did not say too much in praise of the Porters black loam,
considering that its physical composition is also all right."

He worked out the Norfolk loam to see what he would get if he
accepted Miss Russell's dare. The following are the figures:

610 pounds of phosphorus

13,200 pounds of potassium

1,200 pounds of magnesium

3,430 pounds of calcium

"Rather low in everything," said Percy, "compared with any soil I
know that has a good reputation. More uniformly poor but not so
extremely poor as the Leonardtown loam."

He wished that the nitrogen had been determined by the chemist, even