The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1909-04-01
VALUE OF HUMUS.
CONTINUED from Page 20,

more rapidly than does a lighter color.
Soil containing humus will dry out
sooner and be ready to cultivate soon
er than soil that has M humus. Soils
are ready to farm much earlier in
spring that are rich in humus than
those that are deficient in it.
Moisture is better retained in a soil
that has the proper amount of humus
than in one that is devoid of it. In
otner words, soils that contain humum
are rich in available plant food, are
ready to work early in the spring and
have moisture to keep the crops grow
ing and producing; while, on the other
hand, soils that are without humus
dry out and are unfit for cultivation.
Humus which results from ~decaying
organic matter, plays several impor-
tant parts in improving soil conditions.
It increases the capacity of the soil for
holding moisture. 1t furnishes a place
for germs to develop and work, says
a writer in the Northwestern Agricul-
turist. The waste product of these
germs is available plant food. Grains
use up more humus than they did;
hence a soil that has been cropped to
grain for a series of years is lacking
in humus, and consequently not in
good mechanical condition. The
grasses add more humus to the soil
than they use up, clover adding the
most, having the largest root system
and growing after it has been cut, so
that there is considerable of it to fall
back on the ground.
Doct,,rinn ond oronn M murine ORC
the quickest ways of getting organic
matter into the soil. A good system
of pasture or green manuring or pas
ture manuring is to SOW rye in the
fall and pasture or pillow under the
next spring, not later than June 1.
Then pillow and drill in corn, and pas
ture or pillow that under before frost.
When blowing under green matter it
is we'll to roll or pack, as the compact
ing of the soil hastens the decay of the
organic matter into humus. Peas and
oats may be substituted for the rye
and buckwheat for the corn. where it
is tt be plowed under. A field that has
been idle and grown up to weeds, If
plowed in the fore-summer, gets a
first-rate green manuring.
Some crops, as wheat, want the soil
compact, which is one reason why it
does not do we'll on sod, while corn
and potatoes do very we'll on the sod,
the loose soil being very favorable to
their growth. The cultivation given
them puts the soil in fine condition
for a grain crop, so that corn should
follow clover or grass, n wheat
should follow the orn
The soil that is we'll filed with
humus is in the best condition for alb
sorbing moisture and holding it in a
state of capillarity. The soil condition
is also most favorable to the admission
and occupation of air and consequent
ly warmth as we'll; so that while we
may not say that soil moisture is OF
first consideration in the line of soil
organisms, it appears to be OF such
Importance that if we have made its
condition favorable we have done the
best also in the way of supplying
food, warmth and air needed. Plants
use moisture rather than water. Run
ming water or that which moves rapid
ly, is of little use to them in making
growth, while standing water is death
to them. The kind that is useful and
indispensable to them is that which is
held in the soil by adhesion, filling
the spaces between the soil particles
and passing thence into the structure
of the plant. This moisture is sup
piled to the plant very much more
from the stored supply from which it
arises by capillarity than from the
current crop growing rainfall. Humus
is the sponge that controls soil moist
ure, and is an indispensable adjunct