The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-09
THE MORNING NEWS: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 8. 1896

disintegration, from those that are merely
hlled with cracks TO those that will crum-
bic to pieces when touched. In the south
ern part OF our country the soil is made
from the weathered rock and is still in
the place where it was formed. In ether
parts much of the land has been carried
py water and settled down to form rich
level tracts. In the northern portion the
SOIL has been brought from still farther
north, by ice, during the glacial period. 1t
consists of rock ground up by the moving
glaciers and is filled with worn and round
ed pebbles and powders of all sizes, which
are slowly and constantly weatherlng
away to form more soil.
The principal agencies at work making
soil are air, water, frost, plants and earth
worms. Air rots the rock; water dis
solves, washes and transports It; frost
breaks up the rock; plants, such as Itch
ems, grow on the bare rock and help to
dissolve 1t, and roots of other plants do
the same. The roots of trees grow into
crevises and split them farther apart, and
all vegetation dying and decaying en-
riches the ground. The humble earth
worm plays an important part in improv-
ing the fields. AS they eat their way
through the ground they pulverize and en-
rich the soil that passes through them,
thus lifting it for the use of plants. The
number of earthworms in an acre of land
is so great that the good they do in this
way IS immense, and they are really of
much benefit to the farmer.
The richness of the ground depends, f1Yst
OF all, upon the kind of rock of which it is
composed. Phosphate rocks and lime
stones make the best soils. Granite con-
talns potash and lime, which are useful
to crops, and makes a fairly good soil
Pulverized sandstones and slate make
rather poor soil
The tendency of all soils, however at the
present time is to steadily become better.
Not thousandth part of the material In
the earth is available foe plants. at any
one time, but by the constant decay of
the rocks new material IS always being
added. During winter the ice, snow and
frost are at work tearing the rocks to
pieces. Air is silently but increasingly
rotting the stones, and water is always
dissolving mineral matter Plants, animals,
insects and worms are continually dying
and decaying, which adds considerable to
the ground. Earth worms are forever
improving it. Rain and snow bring down
ammonia and other gases and particles of
dust from the atmosphere which sink into
the earth and also make it richer. For
these reasons land that has been cropped
till it has run out if left to'itself or even
turned to pasture will eventually be re-
stored. All plants in growing get great
deal of material from the air, and the
legumes, such as clover, peas. alfalfa, and
lupines have the power of taking consid-
cradle nitrogen from the air, and in their
decay leaving it in the ground thus greatly
increasing it's fertility.
Now while all these agencies are at work
improving the land, one of them alone
water, has the power of injuring the soil
by dissolving and carrying away much of
its fertility, as well as by washing away
the finest and best parts of the soil itself.
The brooks, streams and rivers are all
of the time carrying out to sea the finest,
richest and most valuable parts of the
land 1t must be remembered that plants
can only take in liquid or gaseous food,
so that the substances in the soil must be
dissolved in water before they can be of
use to the plants. Therefore, the things
that benefit the crops most are just the
ones that are most easily washed away.
Here then is where farmers should plan
to stop the waste, and they can learn a
lesson by looking at the soil in it's natural
state When the ground is covered with
trees, shrubs weeds, or grasses, the inner
particles are held in place by the network
of roots, so that they are not washed away
even on sloping ground. The growing mass
of vegetation also prevents the water from
running rapidly away, thus giving time
for more of 1t to evaporate. What does run
off soaks slowly through the soil, and the
roots have more time to take out the SUBJ
stances in solution, so that the water
finally flows away, clear and nearly pure.
This, then, is the remedy for the wash
ing and teaching of soils: Keep the ground
covered with vegetation. Most of the trou-
Bile occurs during the heavy fall rains and
in spring when the snow is melting. by
sowing crops like winter wheat or rye, in
the autumn, after harvesting the ground
will be covered during these critical per-
iods and the fertility be conserved. The
growing grain will also take materials
from the air and water and will furnish
a crop of green manure to turn under III
the spring to still further enrlch the SOIL