The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1872-05-04
GREEN CROPS AS A MANURE.


By Walks and Talks on the Farm" in
the american Agricultural:
A crop of mustard, on land rich enough to
produce 40 bushels of wheat per acre,
would probably yield 90 tons of green food;
and this would contain Jas lbs. of nitro
genous matter. In other words, an acre of
mustard plant can take up and organize
from the soil in about two months more
than three times as much nitrogen as an
acre of wheat.
Now, we know that on the greater num-
Der of our wheat-growing soils the element
of manure that we most need to give us a
large crop of wheat is available nitrogen.
All our approved processes in agriculture
tend to this one object of furnishing avail
able nitrogen for wheat and other grain
crops. If | have a field of wheat sown on
the dry upland portion of my farm without
manure, that will yield is bushels per acre,
| should expect that 100 lbs. of available
nitrogen per acre would cause it to pro-
duce from 30 to 40 bushels per acre.
This is precisely what we want. We are
now getting about Is bushels of wheat per
acre, and other crops in proportion. we
want 50 bushels; and if our climate will
give us 40, 45, and 80 bushels, we want
such crops. We have to pay SO much for
labor, implements, etc., that we mast
have large crops if we are to obtain falr
compensation for our capital, care, and
labor. That we can make our land rich
enough to produce from 30 to so bushels
of wheat per acre, according to the season,
is unquestionable. We must maze our land
dry and clean, and at the same time aceu-
mulate in the soil from $50 to 200 lbs. Of
available nitrogen per acre, and other plant
food in proportion. And we can not get
this nitrogen from natural sources without
at the same time getting a full sufficie ncy
of all other elements of plant-food.
All our so-called renovating crops are
rich in nitrogen. 1t will be seen from the
above table that clover, rape, and mustard
all contain more than three times as much
nitrogen as Indian corn. All the cereals.
such as wheat, barley, oats, rye, Indian
corn, and the grass proper such as tlmo-
thy, red-top. ETC., are comparatively poor IN
nitrogen. The cereals contain but COM
paratively small proportion of nitrogen,
and their roots are not provided with the
power or means of taking it up in large
quantity from weak solutions of nitrogen
in the soil. Clover, peas, beans, vetches,
turnips, rape, mustard, and other renova-
ting plants contain, as compared with
other ingredients, a large proportion OF
nitrogen, and are provided with the means
of taking it up from soil relatively poor
in nitrogen. do not know that l make
my meaning clear. But am very anxious
that the matter should be understood.
do not believe that clover and other
renevating plants take nitrogen from the
atmosphere through their leaves. The re
is no proof of it, The facts all point the
other way. And yet these plants do get
large amount of nitrogen from soil that
will only produce Is bushels of wheat per
acre: and from soil that when supplied
with rs to 100 lbs more nitrogen per acre
will produce, without any other additional
plant-food, 81 to 80 bushels of wheat per
acre.
Whatever the scientific explanation Of
these facts may be, one thing is clear:
Ii we want to rise large crops of wheat,
barley, oats, rye, Indian corn, and timothy
hay, we must devote a conside rable area OF
our farms to the growth of clover and
other renovasing crops. And, contrary
to the teaching OF some writer's, for whom
Ihave great respect, l say emphatically,
these renordting crops must be retained on
the farm. We must not sell pound of
them. Sell the cereals; sell timothy hay if
need be: sell straw if you must; sell aay-
thing rather than clover and other renova-
ting crops. The object of raising these
crops is to take up the nitrogen that is diff
fused through the soil, and concentrate it
sufficiently for wheat and other cereals to
get hold of it. 1t is as poor economy to
grow wheat and other cereals without TO
tating them with clover and other renova
ting crops, as it would be to gather 4 light
crop of hay with nothing but fork. We
first concentrate the hay into windows
with a steel-toothed rake, and then use the
fork for putting the hay on to the wagon.
Glover is the steel-tooth rake. 1t does
not create the hay, nor fetch it from an
other field; it merely gathers it into heaps
for the fork-or, in other words, for the
wheat The nitrogen is in the ground,
but the wheat can not get hold of good
forkful until the clover has gathered it into
I,aapS