How does the soil obtain its organic matter?
How does the growth of clover, etc., affect the soil?
It will be recollected that, in addition to its mineral portions, the soil contains organic matter in varied quantities. It may be fertile with but one and a half per cent. of organic matter, and some peaty soils contain more than fifty per cent. or more than one half of the whole.
The precise amount necessary cannot be fixed at any particular sum; perhaps five parts in a hundred would be as good a quantity as could be recommended.
The soil obtains its organic matter in two ways. First, by the decay of roots and dead plants, also of leaves, which have been brought to it by wind, etc. Second, by the application of organic manures.
When organic matter decays in the soil, what becomes of it?
Is charcoal taken up by plants?
Are humus and humic acid of great practical importance?
When a crop of clover is raised, it obtains its carbon from the atmosphere; and, if it be plowed under, and allowed to decay, a portion of this carbon is deposited in the soil. Carbon constitutes nearly the whole of the dry weight of the clover, aside from the constituents of water; and, when we calculate the immense quantity of hay, and roots grown on an acre of soil in a single season, we shall find that the amount of carbon thus deposited is immense. If the clover had been removed, and the roots only left to decay, the amount of carbon deposited would still have been very great. The same is true in all cases where the crop is removed, and the roots remain to form the organic or vegetable part of the soil. While undergoing decomposition, a portion of this matter escapes in the form of gas, and the remainder chiefly assumes the form of carbon (or charcoal), in which form it will always remain, without loss, unless driven out by fire. If a bushel of charcoal be mixed with the soil now, it will be the same bushel of charcoal, neither more nor less, a thousand years hence, unless some influence is brought to bear on it aside from the growth of plants. It is true that, in the case of the decomposition of organic matter in the soil, certain compounds are formed, known under the general names of humus and humic acid, which may, in a slight degree, affect the growth of plants, but their practical importance is of too doubtful a character to justify us in considering them. The application of manures, containing organic matter, such as peat, muck, animal manure, etc., supplies the soil with carbon on the same principle, and the decomposing matters also generate[Q] carbonic acid gas while being decomposed. The agricultural value of carbon in the soil depends (as we have stated), not on the fact that it enters into the composition of plants, but on certain other important offices which it performs, as follows:—
On what does the agricultural value of the carbon in the soil depend?