Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1882-04-14
Restoring Exhausted Fertility.

Not unfrequently the least productive
lands are fertile enough, but out of con-
dition from poor tillage or stagnant
water near the surface. We may be
quite sure that land that plows UP in
large Jumps is never really poor. These
Jumps are the storehouses in which fer
tility lies locked to save it from waste
under improvident management and
poor culture. / have often seen fields
in which few underdrains to remove
surplus water, and let in air and heat,
have worked wonders. The clodded
soil was fertile enough, but valuelcss
until better culture made the fertility
available rs plant food. On land not
much too wet, good tillage will in part
do this without undertaking, though
if surplus water is not removed the good
effects of tillage will not last longer than
the first year.
In going to work to improve land, it
makes great difference whether the
soil be sand or clay, light or heavy, dry
or wet. As rule, dry lands show for
all they are worth, while soils sur
charged with moisture are often better
than they look. The best soils are dark
colored; but abundance of runners or
vegetable matter is not Il sure sign of
fertility. There is probably the same
difference in muck that there is in the
humus from decomposition of various
kinds of vegetables. The rotting of
cotton seed or of clover hay makes vast
ly better manure than the decomposi-
ton of wheat or rye straw. The ques-
ton as to the value of muck for farm
uses is being much discussed now, and
it is very idle one, There is muck and
muck-sOme very valuable, much more
less so and some almost entirely value
less. Which of these classes farmers
muck-bed belongs to he can best deter
mine by experiment.
But the farmer who would restore fer
tility to partly worn-out lands can hard
ly go amiss in applying vegetable mat
ter in some form. Decaying vegetable
matter lightens heavy soils, and solidi-
fies sandy soils. 1t gives the dark color
to the soil which makes it warm for the
young germ in early spring time. On
heavy soils it has more than mechani-
cal effect in making them porous. 1t
disintegrates them, so as to make latent
fertility available. 1t is sometimes OBJ
jected to the use of concentrated fcrtil-
izers that they help the crop to exhaust
the soil by taking more from it than the
fertilizer directly adds. There is, per-
haps, no kind of manure to which this
objection will not apply. Yet we know
that under good management and with
n liberal use of fertilizers soils will con-
tinue to grow better while being con-
stantly cropped. The conclusion is un-
avoidable that all manures help the soil
otherwise than by the fertility they con-
tait In 9th 10 lal,, tL,,
soil to help itself. This is one Of the
most important facts in connection with
improved farming Good land can and
should yearly grow better. Poor land,
unless managed with the greatest care, is
likely to grow worse.
Probably nothing so marks the differ
ence between good and poor soils as
the absence or presence OF vegetable
matter. This is why II crop OF clover,
or even of buckwheat plowed under,
has often so remarkable Il renovating
effect. The decaying mass in the soil
works chemical and other changes on
its particles, which add more to its
productiyeness than chemical analysis
would warrant us in believing. Yege-
table matter while decomposing gives off
plant food which the soil retains 1t
also probably enables the titled soil,
under some conditions, to gather fer
tility from the air, rains and melting
SHOWS. 1t would seem that lands
Astounding in vegetable matter would
be unaffected by the addition of more;
but have known a crop of clover to be
| plowed under on a black, mucky soil
with decidedly beneficial results. Prob
ably in this case the fermentation gave
needed warmth, and without doubt the
,lecaying clover gave oil a larger pro-
portion Of nitrogen TO the soil than the
other vegetable matter could do. Usu-
ally. however, on black soils fertility
can be restored more cheaply than by
the use Of clover or other vegetable mat
ter Potash and phosphate of lime or
bone-eartb are usually most needed in
black soils, and with these and good
drainage such lands may often be prof
itably cropped for long series of
years.
Experiment is needed TO ascertain
what mineral elements are most needed.
Uusually, II the subsoil be sandy, pot
ash will be deficient, and phosphate of
lime may be also. II there be some
clay In the soil, potash will rarely be
needed, and the experiment should 1rst
be tried with phosphate Of limo alone, -
Ger A. \, Erdmiter,