The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-08-08


The mechanical constituents of soil are
stated to be clay, sand and humus. Clay
is valuable in sonls because of its mois
ture retaining properties and because Of
its descriptive power, which enable il to
retain the elements of plant food until
called for by plants. says the American
Farmer. But a soil of clay entirely would
be of no refractory a nature for success
full cultivation or the penetration of plant
roots. Sand then, when mixed with the
clay serves to mellow it, and the amount
of sand in what is commonly called
clay soil would be a surprise to many
who have not investigated the matter
Humus in the soil is derived from the d.
cay of animal or vegetable matters.
presence gives darker color to the SC =
renders it far more retentive of moist 4
and SO changes its mechanical condit
as to make cultivation far more easy
effective. There is no other ingredient (
soils which absorbs and retains moist y
as the humus does. Hence a soil abounA
ing in humus suffers less in drought a
a soil in which it is deficient A soiiN A
ficient in humus will dry out so thatV
fertilizers applied fail TO dissolve and
of no use to the plant which cannot
food from the soil except in perfect 81 v
ton, while at the same time a soil D
which there is plenty OF humus will Pc.
sess enough moisture to dissolve am
give TO plants the fertilizing matters ap-
Piled. Therefore the man who proposes
to give humus a rest will soon find that
he is giving his crops a rest. But humus
has a further use. BY means of its humic
acid il aids in the solution and decompo-
sition of mineral matters in the soil, thus
changing unavailable matters into an
available
Ii has a still further use in
that it absorbs and retains for
the use of plants the ammonia that
would in it's absence escape into the at
mosphere or be carried off in the rains.
Every one knows of the lasting nature
of stable manure when applied to the
soil. This comes from the slow decay of
the organic matter associated with it,
making humus. The same result comes
from the use Of leguminous crops plowed
under for the benefit of the land A
sandy soil is rendered more compact and
retentive by the addition of humus, while
heavy soils are rendered more. mellow
and friable by its presence. 1t is of very
little use to apply plant food to a son the
mechanical conditions of which is
such that the fertilizers cannot be
made available to plants. And yet there
are theorists who imagine that all that
is needed is to apply the concentrated
fertilizer and give humus a rest" 1t
is fortunate for the farmers that no agrl-
cultural paper has ever attempted to adj
vocate such a course. In fact, it is
rather more fortunate for the agricul-
tural paper, for the hard common sense
of the farmers ali over the land would
reject such a sheet with scorn. They
know better. They know that the value
of a piece of new land lies largely in this
| decayed vegetable matter. They know,
too, that in its decay there are certain
organisms employed that give them the
nitrogen they need so much for the
| growth of crops They know, too, that
50 long as an abundance of this humus
remains there is less waste from the
washing of a clay SOL. They know, too,
that when they apply fertilizers to soil
! abounding in vegetable decay, they get
far better results than they can get from
the same application to a soil barren in
/ humus.