The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-08-20
The Supply Of Organic
Matter to Soils.

The NeO England Farmer quotes from
this paper a mention of our own farming
upon artificial fertilizers for seventeen
years, with very little use of stable ma
nure, and says: ave should not expect
full crop of anything without applying
something to tighten the soil, so as to let
in the heat of the sun, and let the water
out after heavy rains. No concentrated
fertilizer can at once take the place of
strawy stable manure upon compact,
worn-out soil that must have something
material put into it to tighten it before
it can be made to produce full crop
of anything" This may be a correct
judgment in reference to a compact,
worn-out clay soil. The first thing we
should do to such a piece of ground would
be to thoroughly tile it. Then vegetable
matter might be plowed in to tighten up
the land, and for this purpose even spruce
sawdust answers good purpose. 1t has
been put on to cold clay land near the
village of Newport Center, VT, as thick
as it could be plowed in, and repeated
several times, with remarkable effect in
warming the soil and improving the
crops. The editor of the Farmer speaks
of our having used swamp muck for the
same purpose. Unfortunately, proprie-
tors between us on the lake, by stopping
the outlet, have so raised the water as to
overflow our muck bed, which before that
was 30 wet that it was very difficult to
dig-so difficult, indeed, that only COM
paratively small quantity has ever been
used.
Unquestionably Brother Cheever is
right as to the benefit of vegetable matter
in the soil. 1t makes it warmer Gas thing
does) by letting in the air, and it also
makes it warmer by darkening the color
of the soil, for the sun warns up a
dark soil quicker than pale one. But
we Judge from his article that he has not
given enough weight to the fact that
when heavy crop of any kind is got by
a dressing of artificial fertilizer, that
crop itself leaves in the ground an
amount of roots proportionate to the
weight yielded above ground. When we
have got heavy corn crop, potato crop,
bean or pea crop, we are satisfied that we
have also, when the crop has been gath
cred, vast amount of organic matter in
the roots remaining in the soil, which
have so penetrated it that every cubic
inch, for at least foot in depth, has,
ramifying through it, threads of organic
substance which, decaying during the
fallow seasons of fall and winter, not only
leave open passages for water and air,
but furnish material of their own sub.
stance, and of the soil they have made
soluble in growth and decay, for succeed
ing crops.
The use of raw ground bone and ashes,
in the place of acid fertilizers, also sup.
plies considerable quantity of animal
organic matter to the soil, soluble and
ready for plant use. And again, when
you have made your soil rich, it becomes
filed with angle worms, which swallow
and eject vast quantities of earth, much
enriched by passing through their bodies.
The life of these worms is short, and their
decaying bodies furnish an immense adj
dition to the available organic matter of
the soil. The French have wise proverb,
to the effect that nothing succeeds like
success" When land is well-farmed
everything co-operates to make it continu-
ally grow better. Many may laugh at the
notion of the land being enriched by the
life and death of angle worms in it. But
Darwin has shown, by actual tests, that
the weight of living angle worms in a
rich moist soil equals many tons to the
acre. Once get the land rich enough to
grow heavy crops, and after that the roots
remaining from each crop, aided by the
digestive action of the worms upon both
vegetable and mineral matter, will render
only moderate dressings of plant food
necessary to keep up the fertility.
When we bought our present farm,
seventeen years ago, we doubt if there
was single angle worm in the whole of
it. At any rate we never could find any
when we wanted to fish, or saw one when
we were blowing. Now the ground is full
Of them. One cannot thrust spade into