CHAPTER III 
ORGANIC MATTER 
T is of great importance to crop production that 
there be plenty of organic matter in the soil. 
I have shown why newly cleared soils were so 
rich in fertility —they are rich in organic matter. 
Good authorities say that organic matter in the soil 
absorbs three times as much water as its weight in clay, 
and retains it twice as long, and five times as much as 
sand and retains it five times as long. 
There is no danger of getting too much organic matter 
into the soil. An acre of land twelve inches deep weighs 
2,000 tons. It would take 100 tons of organic matter 
plowed under every two or three years to make one- 
twentieth part of the 2,000 tons. 
For a soil to be in its highest stage of fertility it must 
contain germ life and bacteria. These are always found 
in their greater abundance within the first six inches of 
soil, and they get their food from organic matter. 
As they cannot get any feeding matter from the min- 
erals of the soil, they cannot exist in any soil lacking in 
organic matter. 
In virgin soils they are found in abundance, where 
they reach the highest stage of development. 
This germ life and bacteria in the soil play an impor- 
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