SOIL FERTILITY
IMPORTANCE OF HUMUS.
Besides their mineral ingredients, practically all soils contain a greater or less amount of decayed vegetable matter, or humus. This is especially the case with virgin lands which, in their natural state, are covered with forest, scrub, or swamp growths. Humus consists of the elements which have been drawn from the earth, air and sunlight, and, having formed the substance of organic life, is rich in the ingredients required for both bacterial and'plant life. The fertility of any soil thus depends largely upon the quantity of humus which it contains. Few of the higher types of plants or grasses will thrive in a humus-deficient soil. Humus, moreover, is both the home and a large part of the food of the nitrifying soil bacteria. These assimilate nitrogen from the air which penetrates the soil and pass on this most valuable and necessary of all foods to the plant. The desirability of using every means of increasing the supply of humus in the soil is therefore apparent.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1938, Page 3
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170SOIL FERTILITY Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 October 1938, Page 3
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