Here Are Some Hints

If you answered "soil," "land," or something to that effect for each of these questions you get an A-plus! The soil, that thin interface between land masses and atmosphere all across our globe, is all that stands between mankind and starvation. On it we grow our food. These facts may seem so elementary that we don't give them a second thought. Yet, because of the gravity of these basic truths we must extend extra special care to our soil resources, and preserve them for future generations as wise and faithful stewards. Sometimes the most important, unshakable facts in life tend to elude us. Let's take a closer look at the quiz questions and their answers. The soil may be subdivided into various fractions, like a pie. It is about 50% solid matter and 50% pore space. Of the pore space, about half may be filled with water and half with air. Of the solid matter, about 5% may be organic matter, the rest mineral matter. These percentages can vary a lot depending on the particular soil, but an "average" soil as this gives reference point. Remember it.

Crop roots grow within this soil mass, extracting water, minerals, nitrogen, and certain beneficial organic compounds that are produced by the trillions of microorganisms that thrive in the root zone. From these elements--using sunlight energy and CO2 in the air--the plant builds its protoplasm: the carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and other compounds that provide structure, energy, and other growth functions. Thus we obtain the corn, wheat, carrots, cabbage, timber, azaleas, and cotton that supply our food, clothing, shelter, and natural beauty so often taken for granted. Without them we could not live.

It has been estimated that the value of raw materials produced from the earth each year--crops, livestock, fish, and mined minerals--multiplied seven times while working its way through the economy. Thus, true wealth in large part originates from the soil.

In spite of the soil's essentiality to mankind's life and wealth, it is being depleted at at alarming rates. Soil erosion by both water and wind is proceeding at rates higher today than even during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930's. Since the European settlers first arrived in the Eastern United States, an average of 4 of the original 8 inches of topsoil have already been lost to erosion. The causes? Tillage, lack of crop cover, compaction, organic matter loss, and farming slopes that are too steep. All of these inept practices result from miseducation and/or short-sighted greed.

What did our founding fathers say about soils and agriculture?

Abraham Lincoln: "No other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor and cultivated thought as agriculture."

George Washington: "Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful, and most noble employment of man."

Thomas Jefferson: "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country, and wedded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds."

We are all "fabricated soil fertility," our bodies being built from the elements of the food we eat...and that food originating from the soil. When we die we return to the earth, or as God put it, "In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust [soil elements] you are, and unto dust shall you return" (Genesis 3:19).

We ought to heed these words. We need to respect and care for the soils that support each one of us and our nation.

(This article reprinted from the horticultural edition of the Vital Earth News, Volume II, Number 1, Summer 1995.)

By Paul W. Syltie, Ph.D. - Director of Research, Vital Earth Resources, Inc.