| OCR Text |
Show Plowing Is Useful in Keeping Up Fertility of Old Forest Lands In expanding upon the statement above concerning soil differences in forest and field, Dr. Albrecht has this to say about soil conditions in the forested Atlantic seacoast: I "When the forest soils which the Puritans found were cleared of their trees and cultivated, they were soon abandoned as agricultural land by the pioneers who were willing to face the hazardous movement westward west-ward In search of fertile land. These ! fasts have not commonly been relat ed to the low rate and low quantity nutrient delivery by those soils of the lime, the phosphorus, the nitrogen nitro-gen and other chemical elements needed to make nourishing vegetation vegeta-tion for the building of healthy animal ani-mal and human bodies. "Soils which had come down to the low fertility delivery represented by the forest level of vegetation before man plowed them, ofTer so little for animal body-building that the plow must stir them and they must re ceive every possible help to encourage encour-age rapid release of the essential mineral nutrients from the meager stock of organic matter within them. Such soils will produce a woody vegetation whether tree or farm crop unless they are plowed and stirred to increase the rate of decomposition decom-position within the soil of residues of plant generations gone before, or are treated by fertility boosters in the form of chemical fertilizers and other manures." |
