SUNSHINE FARMING 



water for use by plants in dry times. We 

 are to conserve this provision and to in- 

 crease it so far as possible. 



Humus is, of course, invaluable, practi- 

 cally indispensable, as an agent of fertility. 

 The fertilizing mineral elements of the soil 

 are not directly available for plant nutri- 

 tion, but must be first taken up and trans- 

 muted by the acids of the humus into soil 

 foods, humus being, as it were, a bridge 

 from the mineral ingredients of the soil to 

 the organic portion usable as nutriment. 



Every effort to produce and conserve 

 humus would therefore be in place were 

 fertility the only concern, but such effort 

 is doubly necessary in semi-arid cultivation 

 where moisture is so beyond price. Humus 

 also binds the soil together, acting as a pro- 

 phylactic against the wind, preventing its 

 blowing away the best part of your ground. 



Manure of any sort mixed with the soil 

 and decomposed forms humus better when 

 supplementing plowed-under grass, clover 

 or alfalfa. The humus-making value of 

 these forages is immense far beyond what 



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