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Show UTILIZE SHADE TREE LEAVES Leaf Mold Is Especially Valuable for Increasing Moisture Holding Ability of Soils. (By B. O. LONGTEAR. Colorado Experiment Experi-ment Station.) In most towns and cities autumn brings with it the pungent odor of burning leaves, the smoke of which settles like a choking pall over the streets and homes. The yard cleaning clean-ing days of spring are likewise marked with the incense of smoking vegetable matter that is being cremated cre-mated along streets and alleys. Instead In-stead of smudging themselves and their neighbors, the inhabitants of our towns who own shade trees can often make far better use of the fallen leaves by composting them. The high degree of fertility usually noticed in newly cleared lands which have been covered with forests of broad-leaf trees is mainly due to the abundance of leaf mold which the soil contains. This material is especially valuable for increasing the moisture-holding ability of light soils and for improving the texture of clay soils. Florists use leaf mold, where obtainable, for mixing mix-ing with their potting soils, and it is of equal value In the flower bed, the vegetable garden and the field. In our semi-arid regions, leaf mold does not readily form without a little care being given to the matter. The leaves may be stored in a large bin in some shady or secluded corner of the yard, or even in a pit dug in the earth. They should be packed in tightly and kept moist by an occasional occa-sional wetting with the hose, or, if in a pit, from the irrigating ditch. They may be spaded or plowed directly into the garden. Leaves also form a fair substitute for straw in bedding the horse and will add to the value of the manure for fertilizing purposes. In case none of these uses can be made of the fallen leaves, some local market gardener or farmer who knows their value may be given the privilege of hauling them away to use on his fields or in the compost heap. The older nations of the world have learned to utilize every bit of waste vegetable matter In some such way, and although intensive agriculture agricul-ture is perhaps not yet so imperative in this country, this utilization of dead leaves is in line with the growing sentiment for the conservation of soil fertility. |