1909 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
807 
THE PROBLEM OF THE CHEAP LANDS. 
Importance of Humus. 
Part VI. 
One of the very best ways to in¬ 
crease the humus content of a soil is 
by the use of catch crops. Nature put 
the humus into our soils in the first 
place, by growing crops upon them and 
returning them to the land. She is our 
great teacher, and she never yet en¬ 
riched a soil by keeping it bare, Sum¬ 
mer fallow to the contrary, and keep 
something growing on our soils to re¬ 
turn to them. There are many oppor¬ 
tunities. On many farms the corn and 
potato fields are bare through the Fall 
and Winter months. Here is a scheme 
to give a crop to return to the 'soil. 
Let us see, if we can, what is going 
on in these naked soils during the Fall 
months, after the crop has been har¬ 
vested. The forces that consume hu¬ 
mus and liberate plant food are active, 
and if we have nothing growing there 
to use the plant food, it is largely wast¬ 
ed. It is either washed out of the soil 
or is “fixed” by it, and becomes again 
unavailable. From the chemical point 
of view there can be nothing like rest 
in a fertile soil. So great is the power 
of chemical affinity, that when any sub¬ 
stance is broken down by chemical ac¬ 
tion, the elements composing that sub¬ 
stance fly together in other chemical 
unions, and in different ways form new 
chemical combinations. We will thus 
see the importance of keeping the soil 
filled with living roots, to appropriate 
this plant food and build it up into 
plant tissue before it is locked up by 
the never-ceasing chemical activities in 
our soils. 
Now let us go a step farther and 
observe that when plant food is built 
into plant tissue, it cannot be lost un¬ 
til that plant tissue decays. We can so 
manage it that this plant tissue will de¬ 
cay in the soil as green or stable ma¬ 
nure, at such a time that there will be 
anothet useful plant growing there to 
seize the plant food thus liberated, and 
again build it up into plant tissue. As 
our crops are constantly gathering plant 
food from the soil, it is possible, by 
feeding one crop to another, not only 
to maintain the active fertility of our 
soils, but to accumulate a store of avail¬ 
able plant food. This is all there is to 
enriching a soil. But to do this we 
must keep the gathering crop active. 
The catch crop then serves two im¬ 
portant purposes. It enables us to grow 
something to return to the soil, and 
keep up its humus content, and at the 
same time it enables us to save the 
plant food that is liberated by nature’s 
forces, and that would otherwise be 
largely wasted, as far as immediate use 
is concerned. If possible I would like 
to have something growing on every 
rod of the farm all the time. I dislike 
above all things to plow naked soil. 
I always feel that in so doing I am not 
doing the best thing for myself; that I 
am robbing the farm, and sinning 
again.-t my children. 
In the northern sections of the coun¬ 
try we are limited in our choice of 
catch crops. In many cases rye is about 
the only crop available. While this is 
better than nothing, it is not so good 
as some of the nitrogen gatherers. Ni¬ 
trogen is the principal plant food in hu¬ 
mus, and the nitrogen content of 
humus seems to correspond with the ni¬ 
trogen content of the substance from 
which it is made. Thus it has been 
found that humus from meat scraps 
contains 10.9G per cent of nitrogen; 
from green clover, 8.24 per cent; from 
cow manure, 6.1G per cent; from oat 
straw, 2.50 per cent; sawdust, .32 per 
cent. 
If we can find a place in the rotation 
t"i a catch crop of clover, cow peas, 
oi Soy beans it will be much more profit¬ 
able. One of the most rapid ways to 
build up a soil is to plow under a good 
crop of clover. In many cases it is the 
most economical use that can be made 
of a clover crop to plow it under and 
thus fit the soil for a larger production 
of other and more profitable crops. In 
the light of present day knowledge, it is 
idle to talk of restoring the thin soils of 
the East to their former productiveness 
without filling them again with humus. 
Most farmers in the older portions of 
the country have noticed that the soils 
seem drier than in former years—that 
is, drier in a dry time but wetter in a 
wet time. Rains do not seem to do as 
much good as formerly. After a heavy 
rain they are soon dry and the crop 
suffering for water. Streams do not 
flow as they used to. In the Spring and 
after heavy rains, they are torrents, 
the rest of the year nearly or quite 
dry. Springs that used to flow the year 
round are now only wet weather 
springs. We are wont to explain these 
changes by saying that we do not get as 
much rainfall as formerly. But those 
who keep a record of the rainfall tell 
us that we get practically as much 
today as ever, and that, on the average, 
it is about as evenly distributed 
throughout the growing season as for¬ 
merly. I believe we must look to an¬ 
other source for our explanation of 
these climatic changes, and I believe 
that we have it in the fact that we have 
allowed the humus to become exhaust¬ 
ed in our soils. There is nothing now 
to absorb and hold the rainfall. The 
elements that remain—sands and clay— 
do not absorb much moisture, and give 
it up readily, so our soils are actually 
drier than formerly, and it is one cause 
of their poverty. 
Tillage, by aerating the soil and 
stimulating bacterial activity, causes the 
“burning out” of humus. Snyder has 
shown that the loss of humus in Min¬ 
nesota wheat fields has been one ton 
per acre annually. Another writer 
states that under careless farming a 
soil that contained 4 per cent humus, 
after 20 years cultivation contained 
only 2 Z 2 per cent. Think of the re¬ 
sults of Summer fallow on the humus 
supply alone. 
Upon thousands of farms in the older 
portion of the country, taking off more 
than we returned has resulted in a se¬ 
rious depletion of the humus content of 
our soils. They have become heavy, 
compact and close. Bacterial activity 
is low. Crops are unsatisfactory. Far¬ 
mers have turned to commercial ferti¬ 
lizers for aid, which has resulted in 
increased crops, but often at the ex¬ 
pense of still more of the precious hu¬ 
mus. As a result we read of aban¬ 
doned farms. Did you ever ask why 
those farms were abandoned? It was 
not 'for a want of a market surely, for 
in the East at their doors they have 
the best markets in the world, it was not 
for the want of phosphoric acid or 
potash, because these soils contain an 
abundance of these materials. It was 
not for lime, although lime was pos¬ 
sibly needed, but it was for the want 
of humus. These same farmers, some 
of them went west to Indian Territory 
and Oklahoma, and took up some of 
those rich lands. Did you ever ask 
why they went there? Was it for a 
market? No. The great drawback to 
that country is that they have no home 
market. Did they go for potash or 
phosphoric acid. No. It is a question 
whether they got materially more of 
these elements than they left. Neither 
did they go for lime. But they did go 
for humus. They didn’t know it, but 
they left home and friends and society, 
and assumed the hardships of pioneer 
life simply for humus. When we con¬ 
sider that we have only one life to live, 
and when we realize how much home 
and friends and society mean to life, 
w shall surely agree that they paid an 
awful price for humus. 
I believe that the humus can be re¬ 
stored to these thin farms, and that this, 
together with drainage and lime where 
needed, will put these soils in condi¬ 
tion, so that their net returns will ap¬ 
proximate if not equal the net returns 
of the richer western lands. 
To do this great care must be taken 
to utilize all organic matter. None of 
it must be burned. It is a common 
practice in some sections to burn pota¬ 
to tops and cornstalks when preparing 
the ground for the succeeding crop. The 
substance burned is all lost as luimus- 
making material. By selling such bulky 
products as hay and straw off the farm, 
the humus-making material is lost. It 
is not intended that these products 
'should never be sold or that it is al¬ 
ways poor business. Few are so situ¬ 
ated that they can persistently make a 
practice of such selling, and it is im¬ 
portant that everyone knows just what 
he is doing when he allows these pro¬ 
ducts to be carried from the farm. 
F. L. ALLEN. 
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