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3. Organic Matter Requirements of Soils under Various Climatic Conditions 1
Author(s) -
Russel J. C.
Publication year - 1927
Publication title -
agronomy journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.752
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1435-0645
pISSN - 0002-1962
DOI - 10.2134/agronj1927.00021962001900050003x
Subject(s) - citation , organic matter , soil water , agronomy , environmental science , library science , computer science , soil science , ecology , biology
It is commonly considered that soils require organic matter, which may or may not be the case. If they do, it is pertinent to ask what quantities are required, and what principles should be followed in supplying them under various climatic conditions. If they do not require it under some conditions but do under others, it is pertinent to ask if climate is one of the determining factors, and why. If organic matter is not required at all, the fact is not yet proved and would be the only thing left for discussion under the title that the leader of this symposium has suggested for this paper. The writer proposes to assume that organic matter is a soil requirement under some climatic conditions and will attempt to explain why and to what extent it is, and will discuss certain relations of organic matter content of soils to climatic factors and the bearing of these relations on the practice of restoring or maintaining organic matter as a useful, if not always a necessary, constituent. Thorne (i8) recently has reviewed the results of long-time plat experiments in this country and England with consideration of the question of the comparative value of barnyard manure and chemical fertilizers and has concluded that, from the standpoint of increasing yields, manure is not superior to chemical fertilizers furnishing the