Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1888-06-28
! MIXED nussAMDRv.
Ths Only Reliable Way % Maintaining the
Fertility Of the Soil

IS IL POSsloie 10 Keep up fertility Of
the soil by a system of mixed husband
~ that will afford fair profit without
the importation of fertilizers from 9th
er lands while still allowing the expor.
tation OF grain. meat wool and dairy
products? That the soil is exhausted
by continuous cropping without added
manure is not to be questioned; but
nature appears to be constantly work
ing to restore in some degree the ele-
ments of plant-food thus removed; and
time and change may overcome the
tendency to sterility. 1t is common
experience that exhausted lands are
restored by rest and become as pro-
ductivc again as in their original state;
and why may they not be kept fertile
by occasional rest, combined with the
turning under of some portion of the
growth thereof? DIR. j. b. Lawes re-
ports that in analysis of the subsoil to
the depth Of nine feet he found but a
tribe less of the mineral plant-foods in
the first three feet than in the first
three feet below the surface; and in an
other instance. that soil which had
been cropped annually for forty years
. without manures appeared to have
lost. lat least from the surface-soil. only
u small percentage of the plant-food
that had been actually carried off in
the crops grown.
! The theory that the fertility of tho
surface soil may to some extent be
maintained by supplies brought up
from below. is supported by an OBJ
servation l once made on my own
farm. Under u large part of field of
twenty-five acres the bed rock lies
, only six to eighteen inches below the
surface. The soil is a strong clay
loan intermixed with lime gravel
everything the lime rock. The field has
been under cultivation upwards of
sixty years and at an early day there
seemed to be little if any difference
in the fertility of the soil where it was
thin or deeper. l have seen the heavier
growth of wheat on the thin soil. and
think rs heavy as any that grew on
my farm; but in later years this thin
soil has become poor, and does not
yield half the crop that the deeper soil
does under the same treatment. The
failure may be due in part to the eff
feet of drought in very dry seasons.
but not wholly, for within the last iif-
teen years this land has not produced
full crop. while many of these
seasons have been so wet that it could
not suffer from this cause. Other por-
tons of the field. where the subsoil is
from three to six feet deep, will yield
three or four times as much of clover
or wheat
There are lands of drift formation
which contain but little more than
silica or sand in the subsoil. which can
afford but little plant-food, and such
lands are in the state of nature poor.
and will remain so until fortified from
the surface. No farmer need exhaust
his farm or allow it to deteriorate in
productiveness to gain profitable re-
turn, but on the contrary profit is
grea ter when fertility is preserved. 1t
is not necessary that one farmer should
raise all wheat, another all corn. an
other all cotton. or all hay, or all dairy
products, pork or beef No man lives
on one of these products alone. and no
section of the country need produce
one, to the exclusion of others Just as
necessary for its support. Let all, so
far rs climate and soil are adapted,
produce such pariety as the general
want demands for the support of it's
population. and with economy in the
saving and use of such manures as the
farm will furnish. / believe there will
be no exhaustion of soil.
If we should raise a crop of wheat
on field but once in five years, or
crop of corn or of beans, or hay, dur
ing that time. and allow the land to
lay idle the remainder of the five years
we would not expect the soil to be-
become exhausted, and yet to grow
one of each crop in succession which
VIII duOIu aOOOG CYuaA piOut, Will uOts
when all refuse is carefully converted
into manure and applied to the land.
exhaust the soil much more. have
noticed when land had been kept in
one crop for succession of years. till
it was no longer profitable. that when
sown to different crop and without
manure an abundant yield would be
obtained. seemingly as good as though
the soil had not been exhausted by the
previous crop. We do not know that
any country producing all varieties Of
food for the support of its population.
and mainly self-supporting. ever ex-
hausted her soil; nor do we know of
any country devoted to special cropping
that did not fail ultimately to produce
profitable returns; but mixed Lus-
bandry has in all countries been a sue
cesS-F p Roof, in n y Tribune.
lmnroving a Good Cow.