The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-03-10
Ghe 6armer.
Fertility Increased by Rotation.

When the farm annually yields to its full
capacity there is extracted from the soil
those elements that principally constitute
its riches or fertility, and unless the soil is
fed with matter containing those elements
of fertility, it will in the course of time fail
to repay for the labor and capital required
in its cultivation. Most farmers are aware
of that fact and use barnyard manure and
commercial fertilizers in order to supply
the deficiency We have within our power,
however, the means by which the soil can
be rccupcratcd and restored to fertility,
and every prudent farmer takes advantage
of such opportunities in order to bring his
farm to the highest degree of productive
ness The practice of a rotation of crops
is essential to good farming, and it is by
such system that the most fertile sections
have been kept to their standard condition.
How rotation accomplishes so desirable
a result is not a hard matter to solve, for
plants, like animals, differ in their methods
of growth and feeding capacities. When
a field is occupied by clover, the crop, when
plowed under on fed to stock on the farm
and again returned i'll the shape of manure,
adds additional matter to the soil. When
fed to animals, only portion returns, but
when the whole crop goes under the guam
tity is very large. But, as crop of clover
is sometimes too valuable for the pillow, we
still have the advantage of knowing that
the sod and roots are very enriching
Clover is a lime and potash plant, requiring
but little applied nitrogen to make its
growth; and yet, by shading the soil, and
through it's power of utilizing the nitro
genous materials of the soil and atmos-
phere, it returns more nitrogen to the soil
than those crops that depend largely on
that substance Nor does it take from the
soil disproportionate quantity of phos-
phoric acid, which is another advantage in
its favor. As clover takes from the soil
lime and potash principally, it leaves the
ground, when removed, in good condition
for some crops that prefer nitrogen and
phosphoric acid. Experience has taught
farmers that wheat or corn is capable Of
filling a place in the rotation, and such sys-
tenn is general on well-cultivated farms,
wheat, clover and corn following in sue
cessive order.
In some sections the practice is a hoed
crop, that is, in addition to the use Of the
cultivator, the hoe is passed once through
the cornfeld, which more thoroughly Grad
icates weeds. 1t calls for more labor on the
corn. but saves it on the weeds. The rota-
ton is not, however, complete without
root crop of some kind, and this, Joined
with the hurdling of sheep, as is done In
England, will bring an almost barren field
in the course of few years to a fertile
condition. Our system OF rotation is too
narrow. and should take in other crops that
are profitable, in order that the elements Of
plant food should be distributed as evenly
as possible when removed by crops
Another advantage in rotation is that all
soils contain fertility to certain degree.
Even in the best of soils there are dormant
or insoluble substances valuable in compo.
sition, and when they are not being appro-
priated by an occupying crop, are grad
ualy being reduced and rendered soluble
as plant-food for the succeeding crop, and
thus rotation not only prevents the loss of
particular substances in excess, but con-
yerts the locked-up elements of the soil into
free and assimilable matter. In this coun-
try no system of rotation is complete with
out clover; in England it must contain the
cultivation of root crops and sheep pastur
age. That we may learn valuable lesson
by combining both practices, it becomes the
duty of every farmer to make experiments,
even if only on small locations,-Philo-
delphia Record