Carol Silvers age 10 of Melrose Parka Penn

What is dirt made of?

When we talk about dirt.. we may mean several different. things. You may say your blouse is dirty because it has; a blot of ink on its„ You may use a rag to take the dusty dirt off the furniture. And you may enjoy planting seeds. in the earthy dirt of the garden.

We all have a good idea how ink blots and grease spots come: to dirty up our clothes.. But the dirt on the window curtains and the dust on they furniture is more mysterious. Actually the air is full of this kind of dusty dirt.   Sometimes in sunbeam lights up the small specks of dust floating in the air. But mostly the specks are far too small to be seen.

Dust of this kind is made of ‑everything in the world. For trees houses clothes and rocks are forever wring away. Minute bits of everything break‑­off and got wafted away in the breezes:. These tiny specks tend to settle in calm places  where the breezes no longer carry them. This.is the dirt that dusties the furniture and soils the curtains.

Garden dirt is the best kind of dirt. We call it soil. Without it there would be no green plants and no trees. There would be no fresh oxygen in the airs for this is made by the trees. There would be no salads vegetables or grass. There would be no mows or sheep. for these animals feed on the grass. Soil is the most. precious. stuff in the world. And Mother Nature takes her time to make it for us.

All the rich dirt began as hard... rocky moil. Maybe millions‑ of years. ago. the tough earth was attacked by minute creatures too small to be seen. Some of them were bacteria: who fed on the chemicals. in the bare rocks.. The wind and the rain helped to chomp. up the rocks into slivers and powder. Tiny creatures lived and died adding more chemicals to the powdery ..rocks:. In time the ground was rich enough to support larger plant.. They came and thrived upon the new made chemicals in the dirt.

Generations of plants lived and died. The bacteria, broke down the dead and fallen leaves by decay. This process: added  more chemicals to the dirt. Then camp animals to live on the plants.  They too lived and died..

Bacteria also broke down their' remains into chemicals.  Now the dirt is ready to be called soils. It has within it chemicals from the remains of plants and. animals. Both are necessary to make rich soil from powered rocks.

This soil‑making has been going on for millions: of years.. It is still. going on. Wind and weather are forever cracking. great rocks and shipping them into powder. Tiny creatures are: always ready to invade. this new dirt. Bigger planter and animals are always ready to follow when the soil is rich enough in chemicals.  And as they live and: die: they add the chemicals from their.. bodies to make the rich soil even richer. It. has been estimated: that its. take one hundred years to form one inch: of soil fit. to grow plants for crops anal farm animals.