St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-09-11
DAT sTuBBLE.
How 1t Can Be Managed to the Very Best
Advantage.

now lt Can BE Managed to the Very Best
Advantage.
In the usual rotation wheat or rye
follows oats. This is an Objectionable
sequence, because ore exhaustinp crop
follows another no less exhaustino. It
is not generally believed that oats is
exhaustive, or, to use the common ex-
preston, "hard on the land But the
common belief is not well founded in
this respect. An average crop of oats,
equal to so bushels, or 1900 pounds of
grain and chat and two tons of straw,
takes from the soil about half the GUAM
tity of phosphoric acid, about as much
potash, and nearly one-half more
nitrogen than a crop of 20 bushels of
wheat and 1000 pounds of straw. This
is shown by the following figures:
~Tahen from the Sol, By,
20 Bushels so Bushels
Of Wheat. of Oats.
Pounds. Pounds.
Phosphorc aoid. ..........a i51
STRAW is estimated at soo aS bounds for SS each
CROP
AS nitrogen is the most costly ele-
ment of the fertility of the soil, it is
easily seen that oats is by no means the
easy crop that it is generally supposed
to be, and that there is every reason to
believe that the low average of the
wheat and the rye crops may be due to
the exhausting of the soil by the pre-
seeding oats. 1t is not the purpose just
now to suggest any improvement upon
this common rotation, but rather to
discuss the best means of managing the
oat stubble so as to avoid or repair it's
exhaustive effects upon the land. This
may be done, first, by thorough plow-
ing of the soil. Usually the stubble is
left to grow up with weeds, the pre-
vailing rag weed chiefly, and to bake
and harden for two months under the
scorching sun. When the time comes
for preparing for the wheat the hard
ened soil is broken up with great diff
Guilty and in very ineffective manner,
the plow barrel y touching the subsoil
and breaking the ground into hard
clods. This gives the wheat very
poor chance to resist the winter frosts,
and large portion of it perishes. All
this is the result of delay in blowing
the oat stubble, which should be broken
up as soon as the oats are removed.
Then the ploW can run as deeply as is
desirable, and the harrow following
immediately, or the roller if needed,
will reduce the soil to fine and mel
low condition. If the manure is plowed
lin at the same time it has an opportunity
TO decompose and mingle with the soil,
and a second blowing later will clear up
all the weeds, which will have no
time to seed, and will fit the land for
seeding in the very best manner.
Wheat requires a deep, firm, but mel
low soil. It's habit of roofing is to
send down a tap root three or four
inches below the surface roots, and
from this to throw out a mass of fibrous
feeders. which give it firm hold upon
the ground. This can only be done eff
fectiyely and usefullY under the condi-
.%ions described, and these can only be
secured in the manner stated, unless
by a coincidence OF favoring circum-
stances of weather, which the farmer
dare not depend upon, because they
are not seasonable and are wholly i'm
probable. There are other reasons
why this method of management is in
dispensable to success with wheat. The
WGst6ilCI ldfOIS very
the rapid notification of the organic
matter of the soil-the manure and the
refuse of the preceding crops and this
chemical action tends greatly to assist
the solution of the mineral particles,
or inorganic matter, from which pot
ash. soda, lime, magnesia and phos-
pboric acid are released by the solu-
ton of the silica which holds them in
fixed and intangible condition.. OF |
course all this is equivalent to liberal
fertilizing of the land and is great
help to the crop. August is good
time for undertaking this work, and |
every farmer who desires to make his
labor most profitable should not neg
lect it. Ii has most important bear
ing, too, upon succeeding crops, for as
the grass and clover follows wheat the
success of this seeding is assured with
that of the main crop, and this is
equivalent to the better conditions of
the others through the whole rotation.
IN. r. Times.
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