The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-05

All people. probably. detest ants, and
few there are that do not abominate
earthworms.
Hereditary instincts, due largely to
false ideas in the past, have caused us
10 shudder at the mere appearance of
our most useful servants. So depend
ent are we, however, upon the inces-
SAINT activity of these two classes of
obscure creatures. that we should GER
tainly perish if both the orders were
10 disappear from the earth's surface;
and it is not even certain that we could
survive the extinction of either class.
For, though we turn from them as OBJ
jects of disgust and fear, they are, new
ertheless, the best and greatest of our
soil makers ard plowmen. In fact, we
have no animal servants precisely equal
to them in the value of the service
rendered. And if any study of these
lowly organized earth burrowing spe-
cies should serve to mitigate the name
less dread and instructive horror or
their presence (and they are always
with us), or TO Danish from the minds
of the super-sensitiVe some OF that
lifelong nervous Apprehension which
many experience at sight of these
harmless and humble servants of man
kind.t hen this nature lesson will have
been worth while for other than sclen-
tiffc reasons, and the advancement OF
school methods. 1t is in this latter m
terest that these papers are written;
but perhaps no exception VIII be taken
if they are made to serve also little
wider purpose The writer therefore
assures the public that only certain
species of ants will bite at all. and
these only when they are cOrnered, ir-
ritated or driven to it in self defense;
while earthworms have no teeth, and
are as harmless as the soil they till for
us.
A Look at the Soil.
If YOU Wills go into some dry gulch
in any of the valleys of Utah, into
which the annual spring freshets have
cut from year TO year, you can see the
exposed banks Of many feet OF the nm
fshed product of the great soil factories
the canyons and mountain sides,
from which this product came. You
may read there, as in an open book,
much of the history and many of the
activities of that wonderful storehouse
of plant food, the soil. 1t is a great
chemical and biological laboratory
sort of nature workshop for the final
preparation of food for plant life.
For soil is not finished when 1t
leaves the canyon, however finely
ground and well mixed il may have
been. Stone powder is lot necessarily
soil.
observe the sides of the earth gulch.
II is in LAYERS like a, stratihed rock
The top layer is invariably more or less
dark. in the case of very rich soils ap-
proaching black, this color being due
TO the presence of organic matter,
chiefly vegetable mold, made up most
" of decayed leaves. A few Inches
lower the soil is usually light brown
u
ored soil is frequently encountered.
Then comes sand, red or white, then
gravel, then cement or clay, or some
sort of subStTatum more or less 1mper-
Vious to water. Large stones usually
lie beneath. sometimes coming to the
surface of the soil When stones are
found scattered over the valley, it is
because they have been carried there
by floods
Near the middle of every valley in
the Great Basin, the soil layers may be
so deep-usually more than twenty
feet and not infrequently 500 feet in
depth '(sO productive are the western
canyons and mountains as SOIL rae
tories)-that the succession Of earth
LAYERS here indicated may not be so
readily perceived; but everywhere on
the sloping and bench lands this sort
of layering. the first form and prevail
ing order of stratification, is the usual
condition.
The Crude Pro5uct.
This soil, however, is a crude product,
which needs to be refined before it is
the best of its kind. II you have ever
noticed a farmer pillow with the sub
seller, YOU will understand. Though
that hidden plowshaTe turns up moth
ing. vet when it is lifted to the sur
face the iong-shanked and bright
secured point will usually bring up
some sort of clay, often bright colored,
and nearly always very unlike the top
soil. which is always more or less
black. The most fertile soil, indeed. is
quite black when moist You can find
It at any place amid the small oak
brush of our hills. and sometimes under
the sagebrush. It is formed of leaves,
thoroughly decayed, and of the rock
dust the sand, the silt, the formation
of which from the rocks has been pre-
viously described When the farmer
plows sup the sub-soil, it is to let the
air, the earthworms, and the bacteria
get to work upon it ard render it part