The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1879-09-26
How Mulching Helps Fertility.

The advantage of mulch in making the
soil productive is generally recognized One
reason why newly cleared lands are rich, is
because of the constant shade of the trees
during the growing season, and the annual
mulch of leaves which it receives. We find
now that lands partly cleared for several years
before breaking up, are not as rich as fields
used to be when the whole growth was clear
ed off in single season and put into crops.
Probably the burning over Of the soil in the
early clearings, had much to do with its great
productivcness, but think that in any event,
the soil that has been mulched a series of
years, will be the richer for it. One way ia
which heavy growth of clover helps land is
by affording an excellent mulch. 1t does not
always keep land moist, for a growing crop of
clover takes moisture from the soil with won
derful rapidity, but in shading the soil from
the rays of the summer sun, il directly helps
to keep in it elements of fertility that would
otherwise be wasted. A board or n flat stone
serves the same purpose, and will indeed keep
the soil more loose and friable than anything
else that can be easily applied.
A mulch which etfectually shades the soil,
promotes its fertility in several ways. Mois-
ture alone, if not in excess, disintegrates the
particles of soil and prepares them for plant
food. l think, too, that the air in the soil
while this disintegration sprogressing, is itself
resolved into its elements, and thatits nitrogen
being ut liberty, unites with some base and
forms nitrate. If potash is present. nitrate
of potash or saltpetre will be formed, which
is one of the most active and efficient fertili-
zers. do not know any better use for potash
than to SOW it on young clover. In the first
place potash is an important constituent of
clover. The failures of clover to "catch" on
light soils, are more often due to lack of pot
ash than to any other cause Heavy soils
usually contain potash in abundance, and the
use of clover on clay is largely to fit the pot
ash for use as plant food.
1t has been found that where the soil is shell
tered from winds or in still air, and in the
darkness, nitrates are formed quite rapidly
Under and behind close fence we find the
crops always larger than elsewhere. Some
thing is due to the droppings of horses and
horned cattle which seek such shelter, but the
shade from light and winds is an important
factor Something is lost by every days ex-
posurc of the bare earth to the sun, rains and
air. These conditions may be favorable to
disintcgration of the particles of earth, so as
to make their fertilizing elements available
but what is thus gained is at the expense of n
permanent loss of fertility A summer fallow
kept bare all the season, is wasteful of fertili
ty No doubt good crops can often be thus
grown; but to produce one good crop, liz not
by any means u test OF good farming.
| fallow crop which well covers the ground is
| much better for the farmer if not for the en-
| suing crop 1t will at least furnish something
to keep up the fertility, while the bare fallow
| is stalking a heavy expense in cultivation and
| tillage one year on very uncertain prospect
of a good paying crop the season following
In winter, good covering for the soil is al
most equally important. In many places, the
second growth of clover is worth more as
mulch to fall around the roots in fall than it is
| worth for seed or to cut for hay. / do not
mean that it has so much greater material
value before feeding than after, but it is spread
over the ground more evenly than could be
possible after it was passed through stock,
and besides this the changes which occur I'M
der n mulch of clover leaves are greatly pro-
motive of its productiveness. The extraor-
binary gains in fertility from leaving clover to
rot on the ground are much beyond what we
might expect, and may, think, be accounted
for by the theory that it helps to get some
thing, either from air or slowly soluble ele-
ments in the soil, which the clover itself does
not furnish in large enough quantity. -Coum-
try Gentleman.