I wish that you would send me some of those microbes that take atmospheric nitrogen and use it to break down crop residue. I seem to be short of them.

Hatfield has also shown that almost none of the carbon from above ground crop residue (without deep tillage) ever makes it into the below ground carbon pool. That comes from the root mass.

Our soils around here got rich and fertile without the help of earthworms. Some would argue that earthworms, which are not native, should be eliminated from our fields. If you have tiled land, earthworm tunnels provide for the preferential flow of surface water into the tile lines. Preferential flow provides easy access to bacterial and nitrogen.