CONSERVATION CHARLEY - by Harry Corry 



Question; "What is Soil?" 



Answer: "Well, it's...er that is, . .. ah. . . . " 



Seems like that oughta bu an easy one to answer - 

 especially since we have soil to the right of us, 

 soil to the left of us and soil surrounding us. But 

 it's a lot easier to see it than to describe it— for a 

 lot of folks, anyway. 



One feller says, "It's that stuff ya stick seeds in 

 and they grow. " 



Another bloke chips in with, "I reckon as how soil 

 is just plain dirt. " 



A third chirps, "it's that part of the earth's surface 

 that isn't rock." 



Gertie says, "Soil is a complex mixture of multila- 

 ted mineral material." 



The I>rofessor maintains that it is, "The natural 

 medium for the growth of land plants on the surface 

 of the earth." 



Would you care to add your contribution to the con- 

 versation? — Or do you agree with one of the des- 

 criptions which we already have? -- Or with all of 

 ihem? 



Actually soil is pretty complicated stuff. Like 

 Gertie said, it is mineral material. Leastwise, 

 that's how it starts out. It is formed from raw rock 

 with the assistance of Mother Nature's craftsmen. 

 Raindrops blasting, wind gnawing, water tearing, 

 large sheets of ice crushing and grinding and the 

 wrecking crew of freezing and thawing are all work- 

 ing twenty -four hours a day. All of these forces, 

 over thousands of years, turn rock into the mineral 

 ingredients of soil. 



But pure mineral material is practically sterile. 

 It will not support higher plant life. 



So we have to add a dash of something else to this 

 pulverized rock if we expect it to grow rutabagas, 

 radishes and rhubarb. We find that organic matter 

 must also be present in our soils to make them 

 energetic. 



m^^^^ki^^s^ 



Organic matter gives the soil the ability to store 

 water. It keeps the soil particles separated so that 

 water and air and plant roots can gallivant around 

 down there under our feet. It also furnished many 

 of the nutrients for plant growth. This organic mat- 

 ter comes from the cadavers of plants and animals- 

 dead grasses, crop residues, leaves and limbs and 

 trunks of trees, bodies of grasshoppers, birds and 

 elephants. All of these, sooner or later, lie down 

 and die. Through the processes of decay they fur- 

 ther enrich the mineral matrix of our fledgling soil. 



Our soil is already mineral and vegetable. But it 

 isn't producing any alfalfa, apricots or asparagus. 



The recipe for soil calls for a couple of pinches of 

 something else to make it come to life. And that 

 ingredient is truly alive. It is the animal life in 

 the soil — the untold millions and billions of micro- 

 scopic creatures that live in the soil. The soil lit- 

 erally crawls, creeps and wiggles with them. These 

 characters make their livelihoodoff of the mineral 

 and organic portion of the soil. They reduce these 

 raw materials to a form that the plants can stick 

 their teeth into and use for growth. Without these 

 animals most of the wealth of the soil would be 

 locked up in a form unavailable to plant life. 



Soil, then, is a complex mixture just like Gertie 

 said. It isn't merely mineral, though. It is animal, 

 vegetable and mineral. 



"What is Soil?" 



It can still be a jaw breaker to answer. And perhaps 

 Gertie, the Professor and the others who were good 

 enough to hazard a guess still can't agree on the 

 answer. 



They say that they will agree, however, that Soil, 

 for all practical purposes, is that portion of the sur- 

 face of the earth in which plants grow or can grow. 



In short. Soil is productive land. 



