Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1874-12-03

office of the soil to hold plant-food until
the roots of the plants demand it, and
all the plant-food that the frost, the rain,
the snow and the dew have extracted
from the manure is carried down into
the soil and given up to its keeping. The
potash that has been lixiviated from the
ashes of the grasses that the annual fires
have supplied for untold centuries is yet
in the keeping of our prairie soils, max
ing vast store of this food that ages of
sapping will not exhaust. 1t is only very
| sandy soils that refuse to hold the plant
food and these must have clay added to
them for this purpose. We need fear no
loss in this respect from any of our clay
loans or clay-soils, for the plantfood
sent down to their keeping will be avail
able at the proper time.
| 1t will thus be seen that, in preparing
| the garden for early vegetables, we need
not be over-nice in the use of infer
mented manures filed with the seeds of
weeds, for, if we apply such manures in
| the autumn, we can destroy two crops of
weeds before the peas, beets, onions,
carrots, parsnips and similar plants are
out of the ground. We need not plow
the garden in spring for those crops, pro-
viding that we have given it good deep
| blowing at this season, when the manure
may be applied. The cultivator, roller
and harrow may be used in the prepara-
ton for seeding in the spring, and the
harrow and roller may be called in to
destroy the second crop of weeds before
these plants appear above ground. The
narrowing will not in the least disturb
them before that time. Potatoes and
corn can have the same treatment, and
have narrowed winter wheat, oats and
spring wheat after they were two or three
inches high, for two purposes: one to
kill the young weeds, and the other to
break up the crust that had been formed,
in order to admit the air to the soil.
This plan of culture will obviate one
serious objection to the use of our barn
yard manure for our cultivated crops. 1t
is time that our farmers gave more atten
ton to this subject, as the increased dry
ness of our soils demands the manure,
not only as supplying plant.food, but to
so change the mechanical condition of
the soil for the better holding of moist
ures, as we know that there must be the
vapor of water in the soil to produce the
proper condition for plant-growth. The
manure, then, has a two-fold, or rather a
three-fold, office: first, as supplying
plant-food; second, when the refuse part
of il (humus) is mixed with the soil, it
acts as a plant-food- holder-not the food
from its own substance, but that from
the atmosphere; thirdly, changing the
mechanical condition of the soil and
adding to its capacity to hold moisture.
think / have made it clear that, with
proper management, the crude manure
filled with the seeds of weeds should not
increase the cost Of culture, and the only
extra labor is the hauling and spreading;
and that this will lead to better crops in
all cases, and in many instances make
the difference between failure and sue
cess
have before shown that to succeed
in farming the plans must be well laid
and carried out on time, but 1t is not
pretended that twenty dollars spent in
hauling manure will add twenty dollars
or thirty dollars to the value of the crop
unless all the conditions are fully OBJ
served 1t is well-settled principle that
the nearer the surface you can have the
roots of plants the better they will grow |;
but the conditions must be such as to Sc
cure this. IN the winter of 1872 when
so many evergreen trees were killed
lost only two from my lawn, and these
|, two had the lower branches cut away so
that the earth under them had become
dry. If, therefore, we can SO commute
the soil and compact 1t with the roller
or by adding manure assist IL to hold
moisture we shall produce the conditions
that will bring the roots of plants near
the surface. 1t was an old practice of
the Hollanders in planting an orchard to
place a fiat stone under the tree to COM
pei the roots to shoot out near the sur
face instead of going downward-thus
keeping near the surface in order to
reach the largest supply Of plant-food.
When we mulch the trees 1t Is easy to
see how IL draws the roots near the sur
face; and this is the reason why forest
trees thus mulched with leaves have
their roots near the surface. But thin
out the trees so that grass will grow
among them, and thus expose the roots to
drought, and it will be seen that the
growth Is checked and the health of the
trees impaired.
need not tell the reader that this
question OF manure and the increased
labor that it will demand will lead to the
occupation Of less acres in tillage to pro-
duce the same amount Of products, but
that 1t will lead to greater profits in
farming" Rural" in Chicago Tribune.
THE fireman Of the steam heating APP
paratus at the Central Depot yesterday
found penny AS he was raking over the
hot ashes in the furnace, and he took 1t
up with the tongs and placed it on a
bench outside to cool off. 1t had hardly
commenced to cool when q heavy man