CHAPTER XVII 



MAINTAINING FERTILITY AND HUMUS IN 

 DRY AREAS 



When the settler locates on western soils, the 

 thought which dominates his mind and directs his efforts 

 is how to get marketable crops to grow. As long as he 

 is able to accomplish this it is difficult to impress him 

 with the thought that the time will surely come when 

 such a system of cropping will lead to the impoverish- 

 ment of the land. That such a result will follow if crops 

 are taken from the land and sold in successive years for 

 an indefinite period cannot be questioned. The land 

 will stand such cropping for a much longer period in 

 dry than in humid areas, because of the greater store 

 of plant food in the soil, and because of the less loss 

 of the same in crop production. The farmer, therefore, 

 in dry areas, must give careful attention to the main- 

 tenance of fertility in the soil, if he is to maintain maxi- 

 mum production. He must also give equally careful at- 

 tention to the maintenance of the humus supply in the 

 soil, in order to maintain it in a proper physical condi- 

 tion, and to increase its moisture-holding power. The 

 system of alternate cropping and summer-fallowing so 

 commonly advocated is decidedly unfavorable to the 

 maintenance of either in the absence of the renewal of 

 fertility and humus. 



In the present discussion, fertility, of course, means 

 plant food, and especially the three essential elements 

 of plant food. No time will be spent in discussing the 

 question as to what fertility in the abstract means. The 

 author who claims that "fertility is not something that 

 inheres in the soil" is welcome to all the comfort he can 

 get out of so stupid a definition. Likewise the scientist 

 who claims that "fertility is what the soil is capable of 



