Yerington times. [volume] (Yerington, Nev.) 1907-1932, 1913-09-06
MAN WHO KNOWS SOIL.
Moisture and Fertility Maintained
by Cultivation.

! Whether done Understandings or
not, all efforts at cultivating the soil
are primarily for the benefit OF the
| thing in the soil, rather than for that
above 1t. Air and sunshine in Which
| the higher orders exist need no cult
walton. Therefore just in proportion
as we cultivate the soil understanding
| ly does the profit from soil culture
pass from uncertainty to certainty;
! from being gamble to an investment,
writes Eugene d. Smith in the Den
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 a case
| OF deferred dividends to be realized
1 through future crops. Not that it is
necessary for the farmer to await teli
result OF the scientific controversy as
| to what order of life the micro-organ-
isms belong to till the soil under
standngly The thing that really con
Germs him is to know exactly how TO
go about tilling it up to get results.
/ And just here is where H. 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 it is merely interesting and
helpful TO know the things learned in
| the laboratory about soils and soil or
| ganism it is imperative that the farm
| ers know what Professor Campbell
| md the new soil-culturiSts have prov
IN as to when and the how OF accom-
plishing laboratory results on com
| mercial scale in the held-in other
words the Campbell system OF scien-
| tiic soil culture. 1t is mere childish
| quibbling to say that because soil
manipulation or culture was practiced
| by the ancients, Campbell has taught
MS 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 lot of childish chumps
/ to cultivate the soil systematically and
intelligently by actual demonstration.
| And some of the chumps refuse to be
| lievc even the testimony of their eyes
| because it conflicts with tradition
! iduSHt ny HiNH iiOiii
! 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.
4 and that by a certain system of manip
\ ulation can restore that soil to it,
virgin fertility in one year, | naturally
am skeptical. because il does not cor
respond to tradition and previous ex-
perience But if | throw aside my
preiudices and try that system and
thereby grow fifty bushels of wheat
on such field in a favorable year
and follow it with thirty-ive 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 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 dessicating power of the desert
| suns and winds. we have an inexhaust
IDLE store of fertility awaiting to be
unlockend 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 lis exactly when and how to
so maninulate the soil that the sun
shine may best exert its wonder work
ing power in our behalf in making the
soil moist. mellow and fertile. These
men have taught us that the sunshine
aided by the pillow can create these
conditions. but that the pillow alone
/ often causes exactly the opposite con
dition Their science lies in the when
and the how of blowing learned by
| long observation and experimenting
-X--