Annual Report - Wisconsin Dairymen's Association Volume 40 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1912 edition. Excerpt: ... good physical condition, and adds considerably to its fertility. The chemical action due to the decay of organic matter has the power to make' available large quantities of plant food that were previously stored in the soil in a form unavailable to the plant roots. Humus is itself a plant food, and furnishes a suitable' medium in which beneficial soil bacteria increase in numbers. Looked at from any viewpoint, there is hardly a more important problem connected with soil management than the maintenance of the; supply of humus. From observations made this year in the drouth striken areas of the middle west I feel that our systems of farming that allow the humus of the soil to run low are, in large' measure, responsible for the injurious effects of the drouth. From experimental data along this line collected by some of our experiment stations it is definitely settled that soil humus helps greatly in the conservation of soil moisture. It is unfortunate that we have' not yet been able to get more absolute figures concerning the conservation of soil moisture, but we do know that moisture can be conserved by the addition of well rotted manure, by deep plowing at the right time, by packing the subsurface, by frequent surface cultivation, and by top dressing with manure. Three years ago last summer as I traveled over the central part of North Dakota making a preliminary agricultural survey of that section for the; United States Department of Agriculture, I gave special attention to the moisture holding capacity of the soils. Early in July of that year, the crops all looked well and appeared to have plenty of moisture, but by the middle of the month there we're large areas where the dry weather and the hot winds had taken almost all the moisture...