The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1885-08-20

OAS VIZ VIZ " eAAO
capacity for producing wheat, first
year 7 bushels, second year 81
bushels, worth together $3.50; and
we have a gross product of SOL 80.
Take of total expense about So and
we have resulting from this crop,
cash $I4, with $3.50 yet inevitably
to come in increased grain product
What should follow next in the
rotation, because clover sod fol-
lowed not later than August is &C
knowlegded to be the best possible
preparation for this crop, usually
raising the product from s to 16
bushels. Toward the maturity of
the wheat crop it's unusual demand
for food is imperative. 1t is now or
never. There is no time then for
decomposition. Therefore it is In
cumbent upon us to turn this sol
as early as possible since its decom
position in time to be available for
the wheat crop is impossible with
out the aid of these few hot |
months of summer. In fact, they
will do more than all of winter and |
spring combined. Nor will the long |
rains of winter or spring leach and |
carry away this food prepared so
long in advance. A wise provision
of nature makes this impossible. |
1t forms a chemical, not a mechani-
cal, union with the soil, moth
nothing save vegetable life alone
will extract it. There are entirely
too many in the country who put
their dependence for a wheat crop,
not upon the inherent productive
ness of their lands, but upon the I'M
certain probabilities of it's proving
to be good wheat year. Finally,
corn will do well to follow wheat,
because of its harder nature, it will
extract much of what is left of
clover fallOw, and of the rough
wheat stubble fallow of weeds,
roots, etc.
What other farm crop can show
such results as clover? Neither
herds or timothy can upon our
worn fields. They may when con-
fined to the very narrow limits of a
few extremely fertile spots along
the branches and low Valleys
How with corn, the king of our food
products? L say advisedly that if
fed alone, two to tons of good
clover hay, the product of one acre,
will produce as good results as four
teen barrels of corn or the product
of two acres. And if corn is, if
possible, fd to the best advantage
by combining with hays in proper
proportion, even then two tons of
clover hay is equal to seven barrels
of corn. But the one, saved with little
expense, shows up in the soil from
from Sc to $40 in fertility; the 9th
er, dOubly expensive, takes away
fertility. Sum up for yourself
Now want your attention: When
two tons of clover hay is carried
from an acre, we remove at least
three times as much plant food as
is carried away by a wheat crop,
and far more than by corn or cot
ton. Then why is it not one of the
most exhaustive crops grown?-
That large amount of ammonia re-
moved is the very life of the wheat
and corn plant. That phosphOric
acid and weight of mineral matter is
what their roots have been search
ing for so long. Then how is it
that they will grow so marvelously
when you have taken away even
more than they would have
done of those very elements without
which they must perish2 Yes, how
is it that we take away fertility
from the soil and yet leave it richer
than before? just here, let me ask,
why is it that heterogeneous manures
that are the life of vegetation gen
orally should do clover DO good at
all? Yet handful of plaster, a
mineral without trace OF ammo
MIA, with only a little sulphur to
recommend it, gives a strong and
vigorous growth? These are hard
questions, but there are many
things peculiar to the clover plant
that helps US to their solution
First, it is found that plant food
does not exist alone in the first six
inches of soil, but that immense
stores are locked up in the next six,
and the next, and so on down to I'M
known depth. have counted upon
a square foot of clover as many as
twenty punches; many of these
send down tap root to depth of
four feet, absorbing, pumping up
and assimilating elements of plant
food in solution that the feebler
wheat and corn roots could never
have reached. But now that the
wells are bored and filed with veg
etable matter, every wheat grain
will have one or more down to the
bottom of which it will send its tap
roots. Again, the roots, aftermath
and leaves that fall sum up mass
about double that of the hay re
moved, and being easy to decay,
when turned into the soil they
leave there more available plant
food than any ordinary crop ever
removes. Movover, the plant is an
excessive air feeder. Why? Be
cause it belongs to the leguminous
species of air feeders, as peas, lu-
pin, spurry, ETC., each exposing an
immense foHage to the air, breath
ing and extracting therefrom a pro-
tionally large amount of earbolic
acid. This carbon is the founda-
ton of plant life. Large quantities
of water freighted with ammonia
and soluble mineral compounds, ia
ken up by the roots, rise through |
the capillary tubes on up into the
leaves, where, spread out over a |
large surface,it comes into contact
with the warm rays of the sun.
Here a chemical change takes place
between the sap Of the plant and
aad the carbonic acid of the atmos-
phere. The carbon is extracted,
carried in, united and assimilated
with the sap forming the plant bod
lily wooden frame work filed with
gum, sugar, starch, etc. We breath
the air for its for its oxygen, plant