The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1885-10-28
Pine Straw Manure,

straw renders II almost value
less. Southern farmers should krIw
this and be wise accordingly"
AT the August meeting of the Rich
mond County Agricultural Society,
the subject for discussion being the
Management of Cattle" tho question
of material for bedding purposes was
broachcd, and in my comments upon
the very able paper of Mr.. Staples,
who was the essayist for that month, i
stated "that pine straw as bedding
material was undesirable, as it rem
dered the manur almost yalueless,
and, if used in large proportions, it
often proved an injury to the land"
Your reporter gave the correct
words, but by publishing them has
placed you under the necessity of re-
ceiving the explanation of the reasons
upon which | base my assertions, and
if you sec proper to publish these, /
inquiries which have lately been made
upon the subject.
In an essay upon "Manures," read
in 1870 before the Richmond County
Agricultural Society, when referring
to animal manurcs. I said:
although this term, strictly speak
ing, means only such as are produced
either from the excremcnts of animals
or from their flesh, blood or bones, it
is usually applied to pro-
duccd from the cXcremenSs of animals
II the admixture of straw, leaves, or
other vegetable matter used as litter,
this being commonly termed stable
manure. The quality depends much
upon the food given to cattle, as well
/ as upon tho nature of the litter used.
The richer the food, the richer will be
the manure produced. Wheat and oat
| straw, oak leaves, hay, grass, corn
| stalks, and similar vegetable matter,
| should be freely used for litter. Avoid
| pine straw, pine sawdust, or pine
shavings, all being injurious 10 land
from the resinous principles tho con-
tain"
This assertion gave rise at the time
to considerable discussion and a reply
to many arguments against it was
published in the Chronicle. l cannot
better answer the queries lately re-
ceived than to refer to my reply.
"Pinc straw as a mulch is good. AS
a disintcgrating medium for very stiff
clay soils, impcrmeable to air, it can
be beneficial, but only for that pur>
| pose. The leaf of the pine is COM
/ posed OF silicate Ga hard mineral sub.
s%tance) vegetable fibre and rosin. Both
slllcate and vegetable base arc insolu-
BILE, hence not available as plant food.
The ashes Of pine straw, submitted to
analysis, give less potash as q result
than the ashes Of any other vegetable.
the proportion being O.45 in 1000
parts. Wheat straw, after the grain is
formed, gives $50 Of potash in 1000
| parts, and before the heads arc formed
| yields 4.7O parts of potash; corn stalks
| contain 17.5 parts; COW peas from 200
to $50 in 1000 parts; oak leaves 1853;
willow leaves 2.35; elm and maple
leaves $50 parts of potash in 1000
parts. Potato vines are also rich in
potash. Potash being one of the main
constituents of the plants VIC usually
grow as agricultural crops, 1t is evil
dent that a soil deficient in it cannot
be productive and pine straw cannot
give what is required, because it can
not undergo n transformation which
| would make 1t soluble and thus be alb
sorbed by plants.
"Rcferring to the analysis of soils
of different countries, il is shown that
resinous matter is contained i'm some
sterile soils, and in such rust attacks
wheat, rye or oats.
"This is SO well known in portions
i'll Europe where pine woods abound
and where the inhabitants are conceded
to be the best agr%iculturists in the
world, and as careful of producing
and saving as arc the Chinese,
that no tillcr of the soil however short
of raw material to bed his COW or pig,
will allow any pine straw TO be used
for that purpose (this article is used
for fuel only by the poorer classes):
they well know that rust would be the
result If used in the anure One of
our tenants covered q part Of a field
with pine straw, and for several years
afterwards could not raise either wheat
or clover on it, Notwithstanding heavy
manuring afterwards.
Rive years ago | planted Irish
potatoes and gave them a heavy mulch
ing of pine straw, the ground being
well manfred previous to planting the
potatoes. The straw was plowed in
during winter and the ground planted
in corn the following spring, and that
portion previously mulched produced
stalks two feet smaller than the other
portion of the field which had, how
ever, never been MANFRED before. The
second year the field was sown i'm oats.
and the difference in the yield being
less than half upon the mulched Dor.
ton.
"The same result has been noticed
in the vegetable garden, where several
classes of vegetables, especially peas,
could not be grown successfully when
using manure made with pine straw
when manure made with either Oat
straw or oak leaves was used the Weld
was always better.
81 could say more, but deem these
remarks sufficient to sustain my opin-
ion, which is the result of personal
experience, although ii may conflict
with that of Others"
Since this was written many years
have passed and nothing has occurred
to change my opinion as regards the
lack of value of pine straw for manure
material. Pine straw which has been
subjected to the drippings of cattle has
doubtless shown good results in some