The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1891-08-20

meat Is another mHn poison auGs a
? parallel n this case. A system Oh
Iraiuage rhat would be bFneFr'H 2
one SOIL would be rIinOus in another.
Tile draining will always benefit stiff,
( tenacious clay or any abnOrmalY wet
soil, hut almost iuvariable he iniuTi-
Gus to sandy loans and naturally
drained soils, in this climate.
For some years past the state Oh
Illinois has Surfered from severe sum-
mer drOuUhs, which have cut short
the crops and promise, if cOnUin-
tinued few more years, 10 rum
the farmers Of that state This
drOuJhY condition Of things 10 aUtrlh-
uUed By many practical and scientific
agriculUurists 90 excessive drainage.
Twenty years ago thousands OF acres
Oi land in Illinois were covered with
water in the form Of ponds and with
small lakes which Interviewed with
cultivation. In these cases drainage
was resOrted 10 and the wet spots re-
claimed. The effect vas 50 beneficial
that drainage became craze and
nearly every farmer put in a system
OF tiles and open bitches whether his
land needed it or nOU.
r. +. Johnson Of Champaign county,
Illinois, well known agricultural
writer and practical farmer has for
Years pointed out the evil effect Of
indiscriminate drainage. He now
writes in Home and Farm: 1T is
gratifying I'd be able 10 report con-
verts 10 the doctrine that excessive
tile and open ditch drainage is large-
II responsible for the present and the
three or four summer drOuths pre-
ceeding, are increasing, but still they
are in 50 small a minOri-
ty nothing at present is likely
I'd be done to correct the dreadful
error lhe average land owner and
farmer who has spent his thousands
or his hundreds in Improvements he
Thoughts would benefit his land will
be slow to admit his mistake and be
slower TO correct it,.
Al for tile manufacturers, one
would a. soon expect them to suspend
operations and put out the fires Of
their kilns because Of ruinOus results,
or for the salOGn-keeper I'd shut up his
shop and 20 out Of the business Of sell
ing whisky
In this matter 0f tile draining it viii
be- wisdom to consider well the char
acter Of the soil, and particularly sub
soil, and iJs natural capacity for re-
tanning or releasing moisture before
engaging in very extensive or eEpen- .
sive experiments.
+ SORGHUM AN EXHAUSTIVE CROP" .
At the recent Farmers Institute,
held at Georgetown, I expressed the
belief that sOrghum took from the soil
a rreater amount OF fertility than
almost any other crop raised on the
farm. That belief was founded on tine
fact that sorghum yields a greater
weig'hU Of vegetable matter than any
other Of our crops, and that il is all
removed from the field, like small
gTain: and unlike corn and cotton, the
stalks and leaves are Iargely left to 90
back to the soil My opinion was
challenged by one Of Williamson
c0unty's best farmers. He Thought .
sorghum not exhaustive Of, but on the
other hand rather conducive to, the
fertility Of the soil, and quoted in sup
port Of his assertion, the opinion OF
Mr.. Nelson, living few miles out Of
Creormet0wn, who has planted sor-
rhum continuously on the same soil
for twenty years, and finds no dimin-
utiOn in his crop.
This was startling statements to
me and contrary 10 conclusions l had
drawn from personal experience and
observation,
We know that all plant life is sus-
tanned by food derived from the soil
and atmosphere. That derived from
the soil is mainly inorganic, that from
the atmosphere. gaseous and volatile.
The amount Of inorganic fertility re-
moved from the soil by crop, can be
accurately computed by burning that
crop and weighing the resultant
ash. Anything that disappears in
the atmosphere during the burning
process came from that source or Is
water, and therefore it is no drain on
the earth fertility. The weight OF
dry matter a5h is the amount OF fer
Utility removed. TT lakes but a slight
acquaintance with sorghum, with its
two or three crops a year, TO see that
it removes from the soil a vast
amount Of mineral matter, and
THAI the longer it is grown on
the same spot the Less amount will be
left unless replenished from another
source.
Tt is possible that the crop may be
grown for many years without per-
ceptible reduction in yield, on land
containing an excess Of elements es-
sential to its growth, while a second
year OF the same crop would make
marked difference on less rich soil;
Just a. millionaire could give away
800 without being nOticeably poorer;
while the man owning but $500 would
know and feel himself less wealthy by
such an act Of liheralty.
Potash, phosphoric acid and nitro
gen are the elements Of plant food de-
ficient in most soils and these are the
ingredients chiefly called for by sor-
ghum. An average crop Of sorghum
will weigh ten tons, in the green state,
a crop Of wheat, twenty bushels to the
acre and weighing sixty pounds to the
bushels and a crop Of corn, thirty
bushels to the acre, and weighing
fifty-six pounds to the bushei, will be
an equivalent. The following table
will show the amount Of plant food
IL 30.