Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-24

lands would not be particularly i'm
| proved for general farming by the addi-
ton of manural agents, it is true, yet
there is much of them, not now MANFRED =,
that ought to, be particularly on sandy
lands. Our black sandy lands continue
TO give fair yields without manuring, but
they are rapidly becoming exhausted,
hence it is certainly acting the part of
the wise husbandman to add something
for the purpose of keeping them up,
even supposing that the better yield re-
sulting need not be taken into oonsidera-
ton.
There is one element Of fertility, how
ever, that should in some way be given
to every character OF land we cultivate.
1t is represented in the books under the
name of humus, and consists simply of
decomposed vegetable matter. The rich
est soil, so far as mineral elements of
plant food are concerned, can never be
counted on for their best without an
abundance of decomposed vegetable mat
ter in their composition. Without this,
they incline to pack in dry weather;
with it, they remain friable, to a greater
or lesser extent, through every character
of season.
The AGRICULTURAL editor of the Charles
ton Is. e. News says of humus that it is
simply woody fiber, resulting from de-
composition of vegetable matter. Aside
from its mechanical agency in prevent
ing the packing of land, it contains car
bon, nitrogen. hydrogen and oxygen, the
latter two being the elements of water,
and there is always present in all vege-
table matter a small proportion Of the
various mineral elements which are Civ
en- back to the soil when the matter be-
comes deoomposed.
Humus does not enter into plant
growth as humus, but its different ele-
ments supply food to plants, vegetable
matter in its decomposition becomes
storehouse for oarbonic acid, the form IN
which plants derive their carbon,
1t is also the medium through which
they receive a great part of their nitro
gen.
"Humus acts, - says Lebig, Gin the
same manner in q soil permeable to air
as the air itself; 1t is continuous source
of oarbonic acid, which it emits very
slowly. An atmosphere of carbonio acid
formed at the expense of the air sur
rounds every particle of decaying hu-
mus. The cultivation of land by loosen
ing the soil causes free and unobstruct-
ed access of air. An atmosphere of car %.
bonic acid is therefore contained il ev-
cry fertile soil, and is the frat and most
important food for the young plants
which grow in it. -
Upon this action or humus rests it's
chief value. Unless oarbonio acid and
ammonia are IN the soil in proper guam
titY profitable crops need not be expected
from it. The little of these derived from
the atmosphere if any such is vitilized
goes very little way toward making
crop.
Stable manure is the only humus-pro-
yiding fertilizer that is generally availa-
BILE for farm use, but no farmer ever had
enough of it to make it act the part of 2
humus- provider to the extent of his
needs.
Experience in this country, as well as
in older countries, proves that humus
can be prof1tably restored to land only by
working into 1t some kind of vegetable
matter. 1t don t so much matter what !
this is, or whence it comes. 1t may be |
grown directly on the land and turned |
under. as in the case of clover or field |
peas, or it may be brought from some !
other locality, but it must be got there |
by some means to insure the best results. |
1t is not an uncommon thing for our |
farmers to burn off their litter, at the !
breaking of their land, to get it out of |
the way of the pl0w. This is radically |
wrong in every case-it should be turned |
into the soil, for it is exactly what every |
soil stands in need of.