Show CHURCH SECURITY PROGRAM imitate inist ite ame by putting the in back mack into the soil by thomas L martin agronomist B Y U over thousands of years nature has built into the soil material a great org orginia anic matter complex known as hu mus this humus acts aa as a in the midst oe of the soil particle particles and is capable of aborting abor bing water releasing favorable gases feeding the soil or gani sms and yielding acids which in turn dissolve plant food from from the soil particles it is really the great ivey key force which gives the soil its corn com alexion and indicates what the soil possibilities are matuie knew how important this humus was for 5 years it has given our virgin soils just the right amount which when cultivated mk mak es these soils yield abundantly yet man can and does with his cultivate ing practices and a failure to provide additional humus take away in fifty years all that nature has supplied in five thousand years one may put much of this humus back into the soil straw leaves fod der corn garbage manure hay ret ref use sweet clover and alfalfa as green manure will furnish an adal dional humus supply straw leaves and garbage should never be burn ed A compost could well be made to take care of this material until the farmer can use it have a small aiea abea of ground selected and there place layers of straw or other farm refuse follo followed Ned by a thin cover of soil repeat thit process until one has a pile 6 to 10 feet high allow this to decompose for a few months then slice the soil down from the side and one will find a most won darful loam loamy soil for vegetables tables and flower gardens one would not need to gd up the canyon in the spring of the year to secure forest mold it would already be there tor for dimmed late use for field practice spread the ma nure and refuse on to the field any time during the year when it Is con it need not be placed in piles to partly decompose first if one has a limited amount of manure to apply spread it over as much ground as possible rather than place a large amount on a small area this will be conducive to greater yields per er ton of manure |