Vernon Parish Democrat., 1921-11-17
WHAT IS HUMUs7
By George D. Coleman


on the decayed bodies Of other plants
that have lived and grown and left a
deposit in the soil Of decayed vegeta-
bic matter, called humus.
Soils may contain the mineral ele-
ments needed by plants, but if they
are short or deficient in humus or veg
etable matter. they cannot thrive and
do well.
Humus enlivens the soil because it is
the natural culture ground for the use
full bacteria and a discontager of the
bacteria Of plant diseases. 1t keeps
the soil loose and warm and lets in the
air and water and retains the moisture.
This aeriation of the soil is especially
beneficial for the breeding of the bac-
terra of nitrifaction or the "ozotobac-
tel" 1t prevents washing in heavy
rains and the baking or formation of
the crust on soils in time of drought,
and thus makes the soil productive.
Its purely mechanical effect on the soil
is similar to that of lime and sui lphate
of lime. 1t is exhausted from the soil
by heavy cropping without the return
of vegetable matter as the plants take
from it the carbon that they otherwise
must extract from the small percent
age of carbonic oxide in the atmos-
phere and tighten the work of the
plants when it is deficient in the soil,
1t is exhausted by slow process of
combustion that goes on in the soil. If
put into furnace it will burn like saw
dust and the oxygen, hydrogen and nj
trogen it contains goes up the chimney
along with the sulphur, chlorine, iodine
etc., and leaves only the mineral mat
tiers in the ash. Humus is the flesh
while the ash is the bone or skeleton of
the soil. Whether it is a sandy or
clay soil, its power to absorb and re-
tain moisture is greatly increased by
matter or humus in the soil.
1t can be increased by the use of barn
yard manure OF the blowing under of
green crops. Sawdust, shavings, muck
or peat, leaves, or any organic mat
ter such as bagasse, straw, ETC., unless
the soil is alkaline or contains enough
lime, potash, ETC.. will tend if pIowed |
under, to increase acidity in acid soils,
and in such cases should be composted
with from 5 to Is or 20 per cent of
manure and thoroughly rotted; and if |
It goes through the three lamentations
that can be produced in properly |
conducted compost, will turn out |
black mould that has an alkaline re-
action and will add large quantities of |
matter to the soil that will |
not add to the acidity of an acid soil
put will on the contrary help to neu-
ralize its acidity.
1t is to me a source of astonishment
hat farmers in general are ignorant
If the fact that there are three separ-
ate and distinct lamentations in a
compost pile. In fact they do not
know nor understand how to make or
Use compost. When the leaves, pine
traw, sawdust, and trash are piled in
he compost and the small percentage
If manure is mixed with it, it should
,e thoroughly moistened to point of
aturation with water, or better, water
rom tank set in the ground, or built
# bricks and cement or ordinary NOR
ar which has added to it from | 0 to
5 per cent of cement, and to which
water has been added some lime, or
nleached ashes or leached ashes have
,een added to the top layer of the COM
'ost; and in drenching the pile the al
,ali will be washed down into the pile.
This will start fermentation No. |,
which will last from 7 to 10 or IL
lays. Then drenching the pile again
he second fermentation will start and
.ontinue about the same time; and
lTenching it the third time the third
md last fermentation will begin. A
thermometer inserted in the pile will in
orm you of the ending of each fer
nentation, and no amount of drench-
ng will raise the temperature the 4th
ime, as there is no fourth fermentation
nd the pile will be thoroughly rotted
nd reduced to a black or brown
lould, which when applied to the soil
,ill tell its own story, as it is humus
nd enough alkali to help correct the
4 - L,