DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 239 



ter, humus has comparatively passed into an inactive condition, 

 in so far as giving up the plant food it contains ; but, like other 

 organic matter, it holds a large amount of moisture which it 

 will give up. Those little particles of humus which we find in 

 the soil, when the weather is dry and the crop is suffering for 

 moisture, if we take a microscope — and it is necessary to have 

 one when we look for humus, because we have most of us got- 

 ten rid of it as fast as we could, we will find those little parti- 

 cles of humus surrounded with little clumps of roots. Why? 

 Because, from the humus they can extract the moisture that 

 they need. Not only do they obtain moisture, but likely they 

 extract fertility. The humus probably contains the fertility 

 which it originally contained, but it is not as available as in the 

 active organic matter. 



Now, while the efifects of this organic matter, or humus, are 

 similar, they are somewhat different in different kinds of soil. 

 Take a clay soil, the organic matter has a tendency to loosen 

 it. and it attains capacities that it never had before, when we 

 get enough humus in it. I suppose you have some clay soils 

 in this state and, therefore, in order to put that soil in a con- 

 dition where it will be amenable to improvement, it is neces- 

 sary to know how to handle it and acquire humus. 



Take a loamy soil — this is»the best type of soil we have, be- 

 cause the air can get into it, and the fertility in the organic 

 matter in this soil can usually be made available about as fast 

 as the plants need it. And not only that, loamy soil does not 

 need as much cultivation. Plants are more injured in clay soil, 

 by cultivation, than in any other soil, because the roots are 

 confined ; they cannot penetrate the soil to any great distance 

 while, in the loamy soil, they can go in every direction in search 

 of moisture and fertility. Therefore, a clay soil should be 

 intensely cultivated before sowing or plowing with seed, so as 

 to enlarge the rooting space of the plants, or it should be filled 

 with organic matter to loosen it. 



Take a sandy soil. There is nothing that will do the good 

 in a sandy soil like a lot of this organic matter, but it never 

 stays in sandy soil. That is a pretty sweeping statement : I 

 say, never. Whv? Becaues it decomposes very rapidly, there- 

 fore the more need for getting this organic matter into these 

 soils. The more we get. the better crops we will have. A 



