73 RE-SOILING 
become a part of the soil before the next plant- 
ing season. Soil fertilized in this way will be 
richer, moister, darker, than soil fertilized 
solely by stable manure or commercial fertilizer. 
Soils that contain enough plant food to supply 
crops for a thousand years to come, are often 
barren or yield but a niggardly crop. This may 
be because they lack humus, which is the key 
that unlocks the store of plant food in the soil, 
and makes it available for the seeds and tender 
rootlets. How much more humus may do, 
we do not yet know, but every year fresh dis- 
coveries are made, and if we are to be benefited 
by them, we must get ourselves ready for the 
new truths by using those already known. 
On his famous farm in Birmingham, Pa., 
“Bob” Seeds plows his cowhorn turnips, tops 
and all, into the earth in the fall, and by spring 
they have decayed. He says wherever a turnip 
has rotted, you can see the difference in the 
color of the soil even some distance away, and 
the abundance of the next season’s crop shows 
how quickly Nature responds when we work 
with her. 
All vines and garden waste may be used for 
humus if plowed into the ground in the fall, 
unless they have been infested with insects or 
troubled by diseases. It is well established, 
