1. The DIRT on SOIL

2. How is soil made?
Soil comes from broken up pieces of rock and dead leaves, tree limbs, and dead bugs-those kinds of things.

3. What does the weather do to the soil?
When the weather gets hot, rocks can get bigger.
When the weather turns cold, rocks can get smaller. If this happens often enough, the rock will crack and break up into small pieces that break into even smaller pieces.
When they get really small they turn into soil.
Rain and ice can also get into rocks and break them apart.

4. How does water stay in soil?
When water gets into the soil, it pours into pores.
Pores are spaces in the soil that come in different sizes.
The bigger the pore, the more water it holds.

5. How does air get into the soil?
Air gets down into the soil through the same pores that let in and hold water.

6. How do plants use soil?
Plants use the soil to get the “food” or nutrients that they need in order to grow.

7. How can we keep soil from washing and blowing away?
People are using plants and grass to hold the soil down.
One way is with windbreaks, rows of trees that are planted beside fields to keep the soil from blowing away.

8. What is soil conservation?
Soil conservation is finding the best way to save the soil from washing away, maintaining its nutrients, and to make sure that we have the land we need in order to live.

9. Contour Plowing
This practice of farming on slopes takes into account the slope gradient and the elevation of soil along the slope.
It is the method of plowing across the contour lines of a slope.

10. Contour Plowing
This method helps in slowing the water runoff and prevents soil from being washed away along the slope.
Contour plowing also helps in percolation of water in the soil.

11. Terracing Terracing is a very good method of soil conservation.
A terrace is a leveled section of a hilly cultivated area. It prevents rapid surface runoff of water.

12. Terracing
Terracing gives the landmass a stepped appearance, thus slowing the washing down of soil.

13. No-till farming
The process of preparing soil for plowing is known as tilling.
No-till farming is a way of growing crops without disturbing it through tillage.
The process of tilling is beneficial in mixing fertilizers in the soil, making rows and preparing the surface for sowing.

14. No-till farming
But the tilling activity can lead to compaction of soil, loss of organic matter in the soil and the death of soil organisms.
No-till farming is a way to prevent the soil from this harm.

15. Crop rotation
Some pathogens tend to build up in soil if the same crops are cultivated again and again.
Continuous cultivation of the same crop also leads to imbalance in the fertility demands of the soil.

16. Crop rotation
To save the soil from these adverse effects, crop rotation is practiced.
It is a method of growing a series of dissimilar crops in an area.
Crop rotation also helps in the improvement of soil structure and fertility.

17. Planting trees
We all know that roots of trees firmly hold on to the soil.
As trees grow tall, they also keep rooting deeper into the soil.
As the roots of trees spread deep into the layers of soil, they hold it tightly, thus preventing soil erosion.
Soil under a vegetative cover is saved from erosion due to wind as this cover acts as a wind barrier.