The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-11-21
NECESSITY OF ORGANIC MATTER IN
THE SOII-y,

Suppose your wheat had been sowed on
the surface OF this soil th this mass
OF vegetation underneath or suppose your
corn crop had been planted in the first
three inches of this soil, what would have
happened? In neither case would the
plaat roots have gone down below I'll
mas of vegetation to the most soil be-
1e-Ch and in neither case could capillary
attraction have raised the mo sture from
the subsoil through this mass of yegeta-
ton to the furnishing plant roots above
II. But one result would be inevitable.
Aour crop Wou.u de TOR Jack Of moisture,
Aot"-thStand.n S, You may have Il norman
amount OF rainfall during the season.
You have MT set up a chemical but a
mecAan cal condition IN your soil that al
lows the rain water to pass down into tie
SuD-SolL but Will not dIoW cap iIary 10
return INTO the surface soil to supply the
needs OF the grow ng crop aud Il = On4y
the capillary water, or the water on its
return movement to the surface, that feeds
the plant. Not only so but all of the
soluble nitrates in the surface eight or
ten inches are leached out anC carried
down -nto the sub-Soil and forced to re-
main there INT | this bed Of vines. weeds.
etc, has been removed by q subsequent
DloWlng or the natural processes OF decay.
The surface Soil is thus made poorer and
dryer by the loealiZat on of this mass of
green manure just below the surface. How
shall We AVOID this condition?
MI. L. -. bfONn. OF S1i!SDurN, SOiEcI
the problem this season on his own land.
He had CT mson clover Oh Il piece of land
that yielded about s X tons of green ma
nure to the acre which he wanted TO piow
down for corn. This is a very large
amount of green manure to be turned in
at one time espec ally during this season
of almost unprecedented drouth. Mr..
| Brown dragged his clover down with a
heavy drag then cut it three or four times
| while yet green with a sharp @twenty-four
inch we GIFTED d sc harrow set straight.
| After having cut the clover into short
| pieces ne plowed it under as deeply as his
teams could pull it. He then set his disc
at a 81 ght angle and disced the land
again, thus mixing and mingling the cut
up clover with the whole soil stratum in
a very thorough manner. He then laid off
his corn rows almost as deeply as he had
rlowed the land and planted his corn in
| the bottom of these burrows. covering II
shallow. Some days ago when I saw the
field there was hardly a fired blade to be
seen while his other corn on similar land
burned to TIE ear. Rv thus mixing the
Or~an'c matter in this cut-uD condition
with the whole soil stratum the water was
| able to pass down from the surface to the
| the surface again without being ohStructed
In IT'S movement by the layer of non
| capillary vegetable matter at some place
along the lines of ascent.
| The formation of organic acids is q
necessary accompaniment to decay of any
organ c substance but n we'll drained soils
! any excess Of these acids is removed and
RAISES off in the drainage waters or eS-
cares by evaporation. The format'o on OF
ammonia is another necessary ACCOMPANY
ment OF the decay Of any organic mat
ter. The ammonia is an alkali and tends
to counteract and neutralize any excess OF
acid formed along SIDE Of It. Mr.. II. ".
Conn. the leading authority on SOL bac-
tnrio'ogv in the Tn ted States makes tbs
significant statement in his excellent work
on agricultural bacteriol0gy. "DecoHpo-
s't:on n itself will produce an a'f'
condition since ammonia reSnltinr from
ammoriacal Fermentation will neutral'ze
the acid. If. therefore. a vigorous decom-
position of organic matter is going on.
little attention need be given to the mat
ter Of ac'dity.'
In poorly drained soils where decomno-
s!tion Of the organic matter goes on SLOWLY
only small amounts of ammonia are formed
aDd these eScare readily into the ar while
the organic acids tend TO accumulate and
remain in the soil moisture and render
the land ac'd. Here 5 where YOUR str y
Of ItrnnS raner world he turned red bv
fle wet soil. Such land is found in some
Of tho mountain vallevS and some of the
lnw-Iying lands of the eastern mart of the
c+a+n AND occasionally small areas in the
niedmnnt section mt soils N North Caro-
1ina are we'll drained and If the green
manure * handled as Mr.. Rrown. Of
Rovan. hnndled it no fear need he en-
tertained from excess We acids accUnlulat-
ing i'll the soil.
7. T.. RIrRCFSS.
\. c. Donartmant IF Agriculture.