Mehily's and Ximena's Update
Save our crops and soil!
News about farming
There might be a drought or another Dust Bowl coming. Soil can be damaged when it loses its fertility. Soil that has lost its fertility is said to be exhausted. The type of soil loss was mostly in the large parts of the south in the late 1800s. Most of the farmers left their farms. Also the soils in which cotton had been grown were exhausted. The Dust Bowl ruined farmland in western Oklahoma and parts of the surrounding states. Wind blew dry particles and caused the soil into great clouds of dust.
Crops that went through a drought
Save our crops
Solutions to save your crops
Peanuts were one crop that helped the soil to become fertile.Peanut plants are legumes. Legumes contain small bumps on their roots that has nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The bacteria make nitrogen, an important nutrient, available in a form that plants use. Also George Washington Carver, a scientist that lived in Alabama developed new crops and farming methods that helped restore soil fertility in the South. Other ways to restore fertility is contour plowing, conservation plowing, and crop rotation. Contour plowing allows farmers to plow their field along the slope. It helps slow the runoff of excess rainfall and prevents it from washing the soil away. Conservation plowing lets farmers disturb the soil and its plant cover as little as possible. Dead weeds and stalks are left in the ground to help return soil, nutrients, retain moisture and holds soil in place. In crop rotation lets farmers plant different crops in a field each year. Some crops, such as corn and cotton, absorb large amounts of nutrients.