Abstract
UNDER this title, Mr. G. V. Jacks, deputy-director of the Imperial Bureau of Soil Science, Rothamsted, delivered a lecture on February 12 to the Royal Society of Arts, in which he dealt with the origin of humus, its functions in the soil, and how far shortage of humus-producing organic manures can be made good by other means. Humus is derived from decaying plant and animal residues; it acts by promoting a granular structure in the soil, by supplying energy to micro-organisms, and by providing plant nutrients. In the natural state, vegetation supplies the kind of humus in which it best thrives, but cultivated crops do not supply such an optimum product, so that human intelligence and skill are needed to bring about that biological balance in the soil which is the essence of fertility. A grass cover is especially valuable for producing the granular soil structure that is needed by our basic crops, for these are also grasses, perennial for animal and annuals (cereals) for human consumption.
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Humus and the Farmer. Nature 147, 354 (1941). https://doi.org/10.1038/147354a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/147354a0