Pln/sical and Chemical Fapem. 93 



take many years to remove the original surface soil. In the 

 drier parts of the state blowing will accomplish the same re- 

 sult. The evil of soil-blowing increases with the disappearance 

 of organic matter in the soil. The organic matter causes the 

 tine soil particles to adhere together in larger aggregates, 

 called soil grains, and these are not moved by the wind. When 

 the organic matter is used up, these soil grains are reduced to 

 dust which blows easily. Soil-washing does not take place 

 where the soil is open so that the water is soaked up by the 

 soil. Organic matter gives clay and silt soils an open structure, 

 which enables the water to enter the soil, and besides it binds 

 the fine clay particles together, so that they are less easily 

 mo\ed by water in motion. 



Agricultural writers and speakers have a great deal to say 

 about the evil of depleting soil fertility by the system of grain 

 farming, and more live stock is urged as a remedy. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, one system is not to blame altogether, and the 

 other system will not necessarily offer the remedy. If the 

 farmers of Barton county deplete their soil fertility, and par- 

 ticularly organic matter, by exclusive wheat farming and 

 straw burning, and the farmers of Butler county continually 

 harvest forage crops from their cultivated fields and feed these 

 forage crops as well as imported grain on the banks of a 

 ravine, there is no difference between these systems as far as 

 they affect soil fertility. 



The ultimate purpose of farming is to produce substances 

 which can be used for human food, clothing and shelter. For- 

 estry rightly practiced does not deplete soil fertility. The 

 cotton lint does not deplete the organic matter and soil fer- 

 tility. The depletion is due to the removal of the cotton seed 

 together with the rest of the plant. The amount of fertility 

 removed in the animal carcass used as human food is com- 

 paratively small and can be easily restored. Four-fifths of 

 the element phophorus, one of the limiting elements in soil 

 fertility, goes into the bran and shorts when flour is manu- 

 factured for human food. The small amount removed in flour 

 can easily be restored to the soil. Wheat farming depletes 

 soil fertility because straw is burned or wasted and bran and 

 shorts are exported. Because dairy farming exports only such 

 substances as can be used directly as human food, it keeps up 

 the organic matter of the soil better than many other systems 

 of farming. 



