The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1881-06-09
Use Of Manures.

-lrcorrespondent ofth Country Gentle
--ssa. ssys there is often much more IN
) q name than re are apt to suppose. A
mitapplied word changes our thonghts
4 and actions as -Nell. : Great -sharm. has
been done from 9 Misrepresentation OF the
effects of:manrres ON increasing growth.
Tha word "a,imulation" is at the bot.
toEs 81 the difienlty Properly speaking
theye . no snch thi1g as stimulating plants
except By feeding them. Men sometimes
take vine or. uhiskey OF opium, which,
though they give no nutriment to support
j strength, operate on the: nerves to stim1-
late them to abnormaf yigor. But the
vegetable world INDUCES in no such exc
ceases, if for no other reason than that
plants and trees have mo nerves to be
Stimulated. There is snch q thing as
forcing plants, by giving food in such
form as is most easily assimilated !;
but it is food none the less, and not
q stimulaut. It is also true that some
kinds Of fertilizers may, after a time, be-
come apparently imperative; but this
is not like the drug which loses it effects
IN the human system by repeated dos.
!
IN the apparent effect Of some kinds Of
fertilizers, as salt and gypsum, on GER
tsin soils. there seems to be something
Ike Stimulation, but the effect ia on the
soil rafhes.iha on the, plant Salt is q
powerful solvent, and its beneficial effect
Z Is often due, and perhaps always, to its
ability to make available the latent min.
eral fertility of the soil. By the use Of
salt the insoluble compounds Of potash
j and phosphate may be released and put
In shape for the roots of plants 70 take
them up. Or it..may be that salt decom-
poses vegetable matter and releases am
monia in some form available for plant
food. The crop may be immensely ben.
Gifted by a dressing of salt, and yet
scarcely, a particle of anything in the salt
itselfmay be found by analysis Of straw
and grain. This, however, cannot be
called stimulating the crop, for the plants
z grew as they were fed as truly as if the
feeding had been dressing Of stable ma
nure instead ofsomething to develop the
latent fertility of the SOIL. It might in:
deed be said that the soil was stimulated
to produce more than it naturally would,
and that, in time, unless real manures
were added, these stimulating fertilizers
would cease to produce any effect:
But when we look at the subject in
this light, we shall find that all manrres
act as soil stimulants, tina. is, they help
to decompose and make available the
plant food already in the soil. When
stable manure decomposes, its carbonic
acid gas helps to decompose the particles
of soil with which it comes in contact.
So, too, in a greater degree with clover OF
grain herbage ploughed under in summer
The advantage of a well.worked summer
fallow is in exposing as much soil rs pos
: sible to the influence of nature to make
its fertility more available. Yet there
are many farmers who scout the idea OF
using concentrated manures, because
they help to exhaust the soil, but who
think everything of the naked failoN
whose effect is even worse, for the con"
centrated manure really adds some ferti!
: ity, while all that the crop takes fron'
the naked fallow has been got BY
coaxing the soil to part with more OF ia'
strength than it naturally would.