Show imitate nature by putting humus material back 1 into ato soil by thomas thomaa L martin brigham young university over thousands of years nature has built into the th soil material a great organic matter complex known as humus this humus acts acla as a sponge in the midst of 02 tile the soil particles and la Is capable 0 absorbing water rele releasing aslag favorable gases feeding soil boll organisms and yielding adds acids which in tuta turn dissolve plant food from the soil particles it 18 really the great key force in the midst of an army of 0 working units unite which gives the so soil 11 its complexion and indicates what tho the soil possibilities are nature know knew how important this humus waa for years yeara it baa given ghen our sells just the right amount which when cultivated makes these aois 14 yield abundantly yet man can mid and does with his bis cultivating practices and a failure to provide additional humus take away in 60 50 years yeara all that nature has supplied in years one may put much ot this bamus back into the soll soil straw leaves leavea corn fodder garbage maln manure ure hay bay refuse sweet clover cintr and alfalfa as green manure will furnish an additional humus supply straw leaves and garbage should never be burned A compost could well be made to take care of this material until the farmer can use it have a small area of ground selected and there place layers ot of straw or other farm refu followed by IL thin cover of soil eoll repeat this pro ress until one has bag a pile 0 6 to 10 pet high allow oils to decompose dc de compoe for a tew few mouths months then slice the soil down from the side and one will ft find a most wonderful ul loamy soil for vegetable and flower gardone gardens one would not need to go up tho the canyon can on in the spring of the ear to secure forest mold it would already lo lc there for immediate use por for field practice spread the manure and refuse on to the field anytime during the year when it is ia convenient it need not be placed in piles piled to partly decompose pose amt 4 st it if one has a limited amount of manure to apply spread it over as aa much ground as possible rather than place a large amount on a small area Ws this will be conducive to greater yields per ton of manure uro |