OK I will try to explain further,all,and take that as literally all, the earth that is not exposed rock has,topsoil that can be any where from o- to thousands of feet deep,then subsoil that also can be thousands of feet thick.on a solid clay soil there's very little topsoil.the topsoil is made up of decaying,decayed,vegetable matter breaking down to cause humus.under that is the subsoil.its made of whatever rock from limestone to granite that was the parent rock broken down over time to become dirt.here where i am it red because it was broken down from red granite rock or in the case of sandy loam sand rock.clay is made of silt,its broken down from various siltstones, shales, slates, and such that werevery fine grained sedimentary rocks originally formed from just that, sediments, mostly silt.ALL SOILS REGARDLESS can develop hard pan to a verying degrees.sand the very least,sandy loam the next,with clay being the worst.Clay is the very hardest of land to farm,because of one reason ,its either too dry or too wet very hard to reach a medium.because of this it has very little true topsoil because it quite simply washes all organic matter that forms a true topsoil away because water runs off so easily.in the ideal case we would have a topsoil that was as deep as the longest roots the plants were trying to grow has.but with clay what happens is water( all water soaks into the ground,unimpeded in soils such as sand in just keeps right on going down until it hits the aquifer or something to stop it,)in clay just the opposite is true.it runs off very quickly letting little soak into ground.but, and here's the amazing part it has the uncommon ability to draw moisture from very deep in the earth.because of a simple thing called convection and because of its silty makeup grains of the parent material compact very tightly.since this is the case it can draw moisture very quickly to the surface becoming as you say a bog that very seldom dries.unfortunately it has too much water for most plants to survive they quite simply drown or seeds rot in the ground.since it is drawing so much moisture up from below it also forms a very hard crust on top of seeds that very few can break thru.believe it or not this crust is losing tons of water to the atmosphere every day.go out into a clay field and pick up a piece of that crust.under neath most likely you will find the ground moist.just like laying a sheet of plywood on ground will pull moisture to the surface so will this crust.believe it or not this crust is causing the ground to stay wet! NOT from holding in moisture, but from pulling water up from underground so fast its losing thousands of gallons of water to the dry atmosphere.its dry on top simply because it has contact with the air causing it to dry quickly.since we know cultivating Saves moisture , what happens if we cultivate clay?first is we break up the crust,this stops water from wicking to surface because if soil particles are not touching they cant as efficiently wick away moisture.this does in fact SAVE subsoil moisture.unfortunately, it also has a opposite effect in clay.since the soil particles are so tightly packed when water stops coming up it also goes down very fast and soil becomes in a matter of hours too dry,causing our plants to suffer from lack of moisture in the root zone.sort of a catch 22 type deal.how to stop it? organics.. plant wastes have a unique ability to hold and store water that regular dirt doesn't.what happens when we add it to clay is it slows or stops the formation of the crust, it holds the moisture in the root zone where its needed,it still allows the clay to pull moisture up from deep below the surface,and since itself it is a plant waste it holds nearly the perfect amount of water needed by our crops for good plant growth.over time it builds topsoil which in the end eliminates the problems associated with clay soil.buy the way,very little of the water that a plant uses comes from rain directly.it must draw moisture up from the subsoil,which is why a good solid contact between subsoil and topsoil which hold the nutrients our plants need is so important.
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Today's Featured Article - Product Review: Lead Substitutes - by Mike Schordine. Lead was oriinally added to gasoline as an upper cylinder lubricant. It lubes the valves and seats. If you rebuild the motor, you could use hardened seats and valves, and unleaded fuel. But if your old tractor runs good, a simple lead substitute added to the gas is a perfectly reasonable solution. And, if you are like me, your tractor is under cover, but it sits outside. So with every temperature change, the humidity in the air collects in the fuel tank, in the form of water.
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