The Raymer enterprise., 1913-05-22
MAN WHO KNOWS SOIL
Moisture and Fertility Main.
tained by Cultivation.
Condition That confronts Farmer 10
to Know Exactly How to Go About
TllIIns to Get Results-What
Campbell Teaches.

Whether done understandingly or
not, all efforts at cultiyating the soil
are primarily for the benefit of the
thing in the soil, rather than for that
above It. Air and sunshine In which
the higher orders exist need no cult.
walton. Therefore just In proportion
as we cultivate the soil understand.
!ngly does the profit from soil culture
pass from uncertainty to certainty;
from being gamble to an Investment.
writes Eugene D. Smith in the Dem
yer Field and Farm. No matter what
may happen to the crops above the
soil the moisture and fertility are not
lost when true scientific soil culture Is
continued. 1t simply becomes case
OF deferred dividends to be realized
through future crops. Not that 1t is
necessary for the farmer to await the
result OF the scientific controversy as
to what order OF life the microorgan.
isms belong to till the soil under
standingly. The thing that really con.
Germs him is to know exactly how to
80 about tilling It to get results.
And just here is where II. W..
Campbell has rendered service to
the man in the field through his work
In the field, which his opponents and
detractors. working chiefly in the lab
oratory and the library, have not
equalled and apparently cannot grasp.
While 1t is merely interesting and
helpful to know the things learned In
the laboratory about soils and soil or.
ganisms II Is imperative that the
farmers know what Professor Camp
bell and the new soil-culturists have
proven as to the when and the how
OF accomplishing laboratory results on
commercial scale In the field-ln
other words the Campbell system OF
scientific soil culture. 1t Is mere child.
ish quibbling to say that because soil
manipulation or culture was practiced
by the ancients. Campbell has taught
US nothing new. Books and schools
also are as old as civilization. but
systems Of education are originated
frequently. Campbell is not trying to
teach US soil culture: he is endeavor-
Ing to teach a lot OF childish chumps
to cultivate the soil systematically and
intelligently by actual demonstration.
And some Of the chumps refuse to be-
live even the testimony OF their eyes
because 1t conflicts with tradition
taught by men suffering from en-
balmed ideas.
Now when Campbell tells me that !
can take field that has been farmed
for twenty years without fertilization
OF any sort: that has ceased to pro-
duce crops Of any value; that is. &C.
cording to all the accepted tenets Of
soil physics. worn out and depleted,
and that by certain system OF manip-
ulation | can restore that soil to Its
virgin fertility in one year. natural.
ly am skeptical. because 1t does not
correspond to tradition and previous
experience. But II throw aside my
prejudices and try that system and
thereby grow fifty bushels Of wheat
on such field In a favorable year
and follow 1t with thirty.fve bushel
crop in the second Of two Of the dry.
est years ever experienced in this
desert. as my brother and myself have
done. and where wheat under common
tillage on a contiguous field produced
only five. then as an intelligent man
must say Campbell is right and tradi-
ton Is wrong
In our Colorado soils that have been
embalmed and protected for ages by
the desiccating power Of the desert
suns and winds. we have an ine1haust.
ible store OF fertility awaiting to be
unlocked In the airs that blow over
our fields there is an unlimited sup
ply OF the elements that compose
more than one-half the dry matter in
all plants and to utilize this bound |
less store OF fertility in the air and
the soil We are dependent entirely |
upon the wonder working powers OF
the sun in this marvellous thing OF
changing the land from desert to gar
den In the using OF the implements
common to all modern farmers, but
with scientific precision made pos
sible by exact soil knowledge. The
disciples Of this new soil culture are
showing US exactly when and how to
so manipulate the soil that the sun.
shine may best exert its wonder work.
Ing power in opr behalf in making the
soil moist, mellow and fertile. These
neh have taught US that the sunshine
aided BY the plow Gan create these
conditions, but that the plow alone
often causes exactly the opposite con.
dition. Their science lies In the when
and the how OF plowing learned by
1Opo nhaarynt tiou and oy aripapfipu