Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1888-04-28
ABOUT SANDY SOIL.
How It Can BE Made to Yield Satisfactory
Grain and Pnsture Crops.

granger. stand drought remarkably |
well; not by resisting evaporation (for
this goes on fasD, but by rapid capil-
larry attraction, bringing up moisture !
from below. Sand seems to have q
special power for collecting nitrogen.
In rainy season my sandy plains
give me cOrn-stalks of size out of all
proportion to their apparent fertility.
No rain is wasted on sand, none runs
away, as on other soils, but all of 1t
percolates through and the nitrogen
is strained out for the benefit of the
crop. In a rainy season the corn on
my plains is taller and the ears are
heavier than on the best bottom lands
of the Muskingum
White or yellow sand absorbs heat
slowly but it also parts slowly.
Hence it needs long summing and the
enriching, mellowing action of the
rains. before planting is done.
Sand needs humus, it needs decay
ing vegetable matter to give it life
and action by the yeasting effect of the
carbonic acid, Hence the special value
of green manuring for this class of
soils. In light, porous sand the car
bonic acid escaping from green ma
nure, consequent upon the rapid oxy-
genation of the material, is liable to
escape into the atmosphere in the form
of gas. Hence the necessity, in light
sand, Of turning vegetable matter
under to some depth. But dry straw
manure if plowed down, will make
trouble in drought BY drying out the
ground. Ii is better if applied on the
surface in the form of mulching. This
brings the line of constant moisture
near the surface and holds it there.
One very dry summer, when the
white clover ON very sandy plains be-
came brown and powdery in the heat,
the cattle and sheep noscd aside the
manure, which had been scattered in
one place, to browse the green herb
are which they could not find else
where.
All manure on sand does its best
work if placed ut or near the surface
Its action is downward by teaching,
rather than upward by evaporation.
Even the green manure, which was
turned down to some depth, to await
the fermenting process, OF oXygena-
ton. should be turned up near the
surface again before planting. Most
sands carry more nitrogen and car
bon than would be apparent to the
casual observer. This is espe cally
true of the sands which are every
where in the South. The abundant
semi tropical rains. the warmth of the
sun and the humid atmosphere pro-
duce wonderful growth of weeds
. and grass in summer. These supply
| the two elements named, but there is
a lack of potash, phosphorus and
, lime, at least in an available form.
They must be soil. if already there,
by the solvent action of car bonic acid
arising from the ferment of green
manures.
3 The Southern native farmers pillow
shallow-a mere skimming-because,
they say, the bottom is dead and cold.
From their point of view. or Of action,
they are right. But the Northern
, colonist turns green matter deep down;
this warns and vitalizes the soil by
the process of oxygenation or slow
combustion. Then he turns it to the
surface again, bringing up the miner
o ais which the vegetable acids have dis
solved, and the glowing tropical sui
n completes the ripening or the sweet
n ening." But mulch is grateful to tn
y land and the crop through the arden
n heat of summer.
On my sandy plains in Ohio, in theil
= virgin condition, wheat would yielC
r, only eight bushels per acre. Their
v was only an inch or two of soil
:. Nature, in her wasteful processes, ha
), accumulated only so little, because tin
-. forest leaves, in slow combustion, ha
- vanished in air.
Then man interviewed. He busbande
IS the resources of the land. My grand
Or father began as The Southern farmer
d. do to-day, blowing only two or thre
I'd inches deep. But he wentdeeper yea
~ by year. He carried the soil dow
g with him rs he went. The stubble an
" the grass which he plowed under wei
-, saved, not wasted as nature had don
n. by leaving them to slow combustio
C. on the top. In forty years soil WI
H. made eight inches deep. To-day tho:
nd plains will yield fifteen or twen'
by bushels to the acre; in good ye;
twenty-five.
This was q clear gain, because the
in plains1ar far from the farm hea
Cd quarters and receive nothing but VIII
they create themselves Hogs we
fed there, but they ate the corn TIL
grew on the plains only. These san
enriched themselves. Nature, in h
nd wasteful way, created an inch or tN
y: of soil in centuries; man saved i
g's5 material and made eight inches in
nu lifetime. - Stephen Ro,cerS, i" Count
Lieo. Gentleman.
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