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Show Humus Is Our Greatest Soil Need Thomas L. Martin, Agronomist Brigham Young University Editor's Note: The following article is published in cooperation with the General L D. S. Church Welfare Committee, in the interest of better farm and home practices. Additional articles in the series will follow. The lands that are being farmed in the West are comparatively new lands; yet, there are evidences that they are producing at such a low rate that one wonders iif they are not as old as the lands of Europe Actually, they are not old, but their I characteristic looseness has permitted permit-ted the humus to be used up quickly, and the farming system has been such that men have failed. to replenish re-plenish the humus supply as it should have been done. Recently wind and water erosion has been called to our attention. It has been vigorous even in these Western states. Vast dust storms have been common during the last several years. The dust has not come from the deserts alone, but I from the soils that have been farm-1 farm-1 ed all about us. These soils, because of a lack of humus, and therefore low water holding capacity and crop producing power, have dried. Cultivation Culti-vation In the spring has further loosened the soil, the winds in turn have picked up this material, and the little humus that was present in the surface has been carried away. Each succeeding year this condition has taken thin sheets of surface soil with its humus away, and now the soils do indeed act as though they were old and worn out. A worn out soil holds little moisture; mois-ture; big clods are turned up when they are plowed. Plant diseases are very common; and the demand is yearly increased for commercial fertilizers. fer-tilizers. If one looks about, it will be seen that many of the soils are in just such conditions. This need not be. The amount of rainfall, the limited amount of leaching, the vast supplies of plant food elements that are in our country rock, the rock from which the soils are derived, indicate that crop producing power should be high. It can be if the humus supply is replenished, rotation practiced, and land cultivation reduced re-duced to a minimum. So serious is this problem in Germany Ger-many that the Germans have concentrated con-centrated all their energies upon replenishing re-plenishing the humus supply. The German slogan is: "German Nutrition Nutri-tion for the German People from the German Soils." Their soil scientists are working on this problem. Commercial Com-mercial fertilizers have been used a great deal, yet the soils are not producing pro-ducing as they should. Investigators Investiga-tors say there is something lacking in the forming system somewhere and observations indicate that it is a lack of humus iin the soil. It is found that humus and commercial fertilizers must go hand in hand There is a nation--wide effort being made to bring this problem to the attention of all the people. It wouldn't hurt at all if we in the West would do the same thing. We should always remember that a depleted de-pleted son always means a depleted citizenship. Humus will do more than any one single thing in soil fertility practices to bring the soils out of this depleted stage. |