OCR Text |
Show When Soils Cease to Produce. The trouble with soils when they cease to produce as they did when new is not that the elements of plant food are actually exhausted from the soil, but the necessaary forces for the liberation are exhausted. One of these forces is bacteria. It is estimated esti-mated that in the common soil there are 150,000,000 bacteria to the ounce. These bacteria must have for their food, humus, then they will liberate food for the growth of plants. To be a good farmer one needs to grow legumes le-gumes and other cover crop plants to turn under for humus, and to encourage en-courage these beneficial bacteria to perform their functions in the soil. |