The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-03-13
SOUTHERN AGRICULTURAL.
EXPERIENCE AND scIENcE.

"a pNAACACC anu SClGHC0 bEdC0 us
that all sandy and gravely lands leach
badly when put in cultivation; that is,
all mold or plant food are washed down
into the sub-soil, and the gravel or
sharp sand flint rocksl remain on the
surface. If any one will take the soil
that has been in plowed crops for TWEEN
ty years, and the same kind of sandy
soil that has been only in cultivation for
two or three years and examine them
through magnifying glass, they will
SEQ that the surface soil of the land in
cultivation for twenty years looks like
pile OF small, clean flint rocks down
to the top of the clay. This sand shows
where the mold (plant food) has gone,
Tor 1T will be found more abundant just
above the clay than nearer the surface.
The fresh, sandy soils will show most
mold or plant food on or nearer
the surface, and very little in
the clay. On fresh lands-on grass,
clover, cowpeas, etc.-the roots of
these plants catch this substance
in its descent and return it to
the surface in leaves, stalks, seeds, etc.,
each year. For this reason we should
keep some kind of crop growing on the
land all the time. Peas sown in the
corn at laying by to come in and catch
and retain all the plant food not taken
up by the corn from any cause, root cut
ting, drought, excessive rains, bad drain
age or shallow preparation. Nine out
OF ten seasons are good, but nine out of
ten years we guess wrong and curse the
season for our own short-sightedness in
not catching escaping ammonia, for it is
a settled fact that all ammonia turned
loose by the opening of the soil with
the pillow on clean soils, will either be
lost from evaporation by the long sum-
mer and fall heat, or carried down into
the sub-soil by the winter rains. If
there is no clay foundation or
growing plant roots to catch
it, ammonia will, in few
years, be carried below where any plant
root can feed. If the soil is filled with
plant roots, the ammonia will be re-
turned to the surface when the plants
decay; if clay foundation, the clay
will retain the ammonia, where summer
crops, such as cotton and other tropical
plants will get it, but is lost to the
spring crops of the temperate zone, such
as wheat, oats, Northern or extra early
corn, grasses and clover. Why? Be
cause nothing can decay or be digested
without air, and roots can not feed on
undecayed substances. All the plant
food during the spring is held sub
merged in cold water, which is also held
by the tenacious clay until summer
comes. So all that the spring plants
can get is the very scant sub
stances left in this bed of very
small flint rocks and the food gath
cred from the air through its little
feeder roots mot the leaves). All cul-
tivation will do much better on these
old sandy soils than those sown broad
cast, because the cultivation stirring
the soil causes more rapid evaporation
and lets air down deeper. While this
sandy soil on a clay foundation is I'M
fitted for all spring crops, it is a COM
plete soil for summer crops. The land
acts as protection against the heat of
the sun by cutting off all capillary at
traction and forming a dense shade.
The clay keeps both plant food and
water together just on top of it, where
all plant roots will be sure to run, for
they can not catch into the sand or en-
ter the airless clay. There is but little
danger of crippling the plant by root
cutting in cultivation, for they are deep
enough to admit of thorough cultivation
with shallow running implements.
Do not understand me to say that
these soils are not suited for any thing
but cotton and sugar cane. By no
means. They are suited to a greater
number of plants than the clay soils of
the North, open, porous and under
drained. We must confine ourselves to
summer crops, and this is as it should
be. Were it other wise, our summers
would be much hotter by the direct rays
Of the sun on the soil protected by green
and growing plants that feed themselves
and their stalk. In the absense Of this
growing vegetation our hot months
would cost US just as much for shade and
stock feed as the winters do the people
0f the North. We have many summer
grasses that furnish us with summer and
tall grazing, and the very cheapest and
best hay for winter, which, if fed to
cattle land sheep with cotton seed, will
Keep them fat the year round without
any kind of grain.
We have three hundred acres in Guilt
in one field. We have one
side in corn, oats, millet, etc. The corn
S pulled early. The oats are thrashed
md the straw stacked. While we do |
not get as good crop of oats as on the
sitter soils, we get full crop of crab
grass hay, which with the millet is put
N a long, narrow shed in the field. AS
soon as the corn is gathered first of
September) we put boy on mule to |
lerding our cattle every forenoon where
,he corn grew. This is kept up until |
cotton is gathered and the rye sown IN
'he cotton shows green sward, then the |
;attle are turned loose in the field. The
blows then turn the land where we had |
'orn and millet under. Generally there |
s a good crop of volunteer oats which |
helps winter grazing; this we leave |
until after Christmas. Our cattle |
nave access to the straw stack |
md hay shed, and the green rye
Turing the winter. The only feeding |