Quotation from: General Science

Written by: Bertha M. Clark


246. The Poverty of the Soil. Plant roots are constantly taking
nitrogen and its compounds from the soil. If crops which grow from the
soil are removed year after year, the soil becomes poorer in nitrogen,
and finally possesses too little of it to support vigorous and healthy
plant life. The nitrogen of the soil can be restored if we add to it a
fertilizer containing nitrogen compounds which are soluble in water.
Decayed vegetable matter contains large quantities of nitrogen
compounds, and hence if decayed vegetation is placed upon soil or is
plowed into soil, it acts as a fertilizer, returning to the soil what
was taken from it. Since man and all other animals subsist upon
plants, their bodies likewise contain nitrogenous substances, and
hence manure and waste animal matter is valuable as a fertilizer or
soil restorer.

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