The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-08-22
SALT AND LIME AS FERTILIZERS.

The following letter from Matthew
and who has given much study and in
vestigation to agricultural methods an(
appliances, contains some valuable sug
gestIOns 10 Kansas farmers:
| 5. ". Campbell, Esq Hutchinson. Kansas.
| Dear Sir: | have been deeply inter
ested In your valuable salt discovery al
| hutchinson, and its great extent in YOU
| locality, and with the hope that your
state and border states might find a
proper way of fertilizlng your broad
pralies in the application of salt to i'll
crease their producing capacity.
! \ gentleman Of my acquaintance, in
his varied business enterprises. finds it
pleasant and profitable to cultivate a
| farm Of several hundred acres in Wis
consin. He il liberal user of salt and
| Stacked lime as fertilizers. Last year a
lot Of forty-eight acres produced fifty
six and one-haif bushels of barley per
acre. He put $50 TO 800 pounds of salt
per acre on this l:tnd-no lime; but if
lime was used also, it would, he thinks,
have produced better.
He had twenty-eight acre lot of
" meat. " t4iCil IlOObtCSo OHtiIt1 -SSNEfl
and three-fourths bushels per acre, He
put, say 25O to 300 pounds per acre of
| salt on his land. and he uses a carload of
| Stacked lime to say forty acres.
He says the farmers of Pennsylvania
understand the benefits and necessity of
using Stacked lime on their wheat lands
In Lancaster county, where they har-
vest as high as forty bushels per acre,
these farmers burn their own lime.
They raise good crops every year, and
their success is attributed to the feriiliz-
ing poperties of Stacked lime. Chang
ing wheat and barley lands, enriched by
salt and lime, to corn, increases the yield
of that product.
Sailed land will endure drouth apd
produce double that OF lands not sailed.
AS 10 grain lands and their producing
qualities, my friend reasons as follows:
a necessity OF both salt and lime to
insure good Yields.
The burning over Of our prairie lands
from time immemorial, every fall or
spring, was means of supplying both
salt and lime, which were 10 be found
in the ashes. That is and was the rea-
son and the secret of the immense crops
for the first ten or twelve wears Of cul-
tivation in Wisconsin, Illinois aud Iowa.
The burning of prairies has ceased, and
the lime and salt are exhausted from
the soil and must be artifcially replaced
TO insure good crops.
This viii probably be tie case in
your state IN time to come, if your farm
erS neglect the use of such cheap and
convenient fertilizers as salt and lime.
During dry season or drouth, salt is
of more benefit TO land than IN wet
seasons. salt and lime viii renew our
lands for small grain. Hardwood ashes
are better than lime. if obtanable.
Referring again To the PENNSYLVANIA
farmers, they burn their own lime.
put it in piles and let it slack,
open to the air and weather,
put 1t on the land when Stacked in either
spring or fall, after ploughing. but before
dragging. Ii no more than three to five
bushels OF lime per acre IS used. they
put 1t on after the grain is sown. Ii you
put on ten bushels OF lime per acre, it
should be dragged IN, and will last from
five TO ten wears. Salt should be put on
the growing grain after 1t is twoor three
inches high. My friend added: MY
crop OF barley, fifty-sIx and one-half
bushels per acre. was the third wear after
putting on lime. l had large crop of
barley the first and second years also.
Salt your meadows in the spring. say
two hundred pounds per acre: lime Is
equally "a good for grass as for grain,
and IS better ghah plaster. Plaster stirnu-
iates production, but rapidly exhausts
the soil. Plaster is good on land when
you have stock grazing. especially on
IA or u
bushels Of plaster per acre. put two
tons of plaster on eleven acres OF corn
land, and gathered over one hundred
hausted tie land. Salt and lime will
bring it up again.
Il nave cleared Up new land adioin-
ing that which IN earlier years produced
large crops OF wheat aud other small
gram, originally prairie, bat had grown
up IN tlUber. l cleared UD this and and
Sowed II IN beat, expecting 1t 10 yield
d adjoining lands dbl formerly. aad
dId not even get small crop. Tie
prairie had not been burned over Tor sew
erai years, the salt aud lime from burn
lug grasses had become exhausted. and
the essential ingredients OF the SOL for
wheat was wanting. It would no DOUBT
nave produced good corn.
| suppose IL Kansas you have more
stone lands than salt lands, and can, il
.uel can be had, burn your limoand uril-
ize the stone not other wise needed Per
haps your limestone la-ds Go not need
the lime, but do need the salt.
Excuse the disconnected statement OF
d farmers experiences and opinions.
hope II may IL Ct some value IN Kansas
:.
en;iching your lands ead checking the