Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1889-05-31
A RAT-PROOF erie.


- A crib for ear corn, says a Pennsyl-
vania farmer, should be so constructed as
to allow free passage of air through it,
otherwise the grain is liable to mold be-
fore it is properly dried out. The best
way | know of to place Slated or partly
open crib is to set it on upright blocks
ten inches square and four feet high, with
the upper ends trimmed down to six
inches square; on these ends nail sheets
of tin wide enough to project beyond the
sills, which are to be laid on these tin
covered blocks, so that when rat climbs
up the foundation block he is met by the
projecting tin, which he cannot get over.
The crib may then be finished in any form
desired, either open work for ear corn, or
entirely tight, according to the use it is
wanted for, and no mouse or rat can en-
ter it, unless by some carelessness or
neglect Oh the owners part. Nothing
must be left set up against it to furnish
LADDER for the vermin, and the steps should
be movable SO they can be set aside or
suspended when not in USE"
CF7 LONG CONTINUED USE OF FERTILIZERS.
The following query with it's reply ap-
peared in a recent bulletin issued by the
Georgia State Agriculture Department:
Question-It is fact, as regards this
section, that the unfertilized land, age
and wear considered, will not produce as
it did before commercial fertilizers were
used. Why is it? 2. Or has the long
continued use of fertilizers made their
use necessity This theory is true as
to the human system, is it also true as to
the soil and plants.
Reply. It is because larger crops
have been annually taken off the soil than
if no fertilizers had been used. The fer
tiliZer added to the soil stimulates the
plant to appropriate and the soil to yield
to the plant more Of the elements of plant
food contained in the soil naturally than
If no fertilizer were applied. If the fer
tilizer applied does not contain the ele-
ments Of plant food in the proportions de-
handed by the invariable composition of
the crops cultivated, especially if the
lacking element is the one in which the
sod is most deficient, the soil will soon
become destitute of the deficient element,
at least in an invariable form as plant
food. It will then no longer pro-
duce as good crops as formerly,
unless the deficiency be made up. The
element most commonly applied which
exerts this so-called stimulating effect on
the soil is ammonia, which causes a vigor-
Gus growth Of stem and foliage, and thus
demands an increased quantity of the ele-
ments already in the soil and returns
larger crop. OF course, the soil will soon
exhibit signs of exhaustion under such
Treatment, especially when it is 1emem-
bered that more of the elements of fer
tiii1y in the soil are annually washed away
by the rains than are removed III the
crops produced on the land.
2. There is no doubt of the fact that
the continued use of fertilizers becomes
necessity when we continue to cultivate
the same land in clean crops, like corn
and cotton. Precisely the same is true
of the use Of stable manure. 1t was a
necessity that first induced its use; it
does not become any more a necessity. If
an acre Of soil contains the necessary
plant food, mostly in unavailable form, to
produce 1000 bushels of corn before it
will have become entirely exhausted, and
ordinary continuous cultivation in that
crop, without manure, would reach the
stage Of exhaustion in 100 years, would
it be bad policy to fertilize the land and
cause it to yield the 1000 bushels of corn
IN twenty-five years.
The soil cannot be Ikened to the hu-
man body in a comparison Of tae sort
suggested; it is the plant that sustains
that relation. The plant in the one case
and the human body in the other are the
objects to be supplied with food. The
theory has no such application.