respiration

Today I went to hear a report on the results of a cover crop demonstration grant the farm was a part of.  For the first time ever in my four decades of farming I saw soil test results reported out partly in terms of the respiration measured coming from the sample of soil.  This, of course, is an attempt to assess the microbial activity in the soil, with the understanding that the more the soil teems with life, the more fertile it will be, the less it will compact and erode and the easier it will be to work with.  In the larger sense, it is an attempt to apply wisdom as well as science and experience to the farming of the land.  There is hope for us yet!

Jim