The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1893-07-18

life, a man can tell what kind of soils
are best adapted to a certain plant,
what kind of culture is best suited to
another, and what filth to another and
so on. Plant life needs to be furnished
a certain amount of sunshine, moisture
and mineral ingredients to perform its
best growth. By the analysis of q
plant we invariably fad certain min
eral ingredients in different portions of
the plant, hence the intelligent farmer
concludes that these are necessary for
plant life and will furnish them in just
the proportion that they r needed.
Just here we find an excellent exam
pie of how thorough should be the
kno Wedge of the farmer. For, if he is
but a superficial student of nature, on
finding in the plant some calcium, iron,
etc., he would ignorantly conclude that
he would always have to apply iron
and calcium to his soil. But not so,
for as a general rule our soils contain a
plenty of calcium and always a super
| abundance of iron. Calcium applied
to the soil generally does good by indl
rectly producing large crops for a
while. The uneducated farmer, even
when he is honestly trying to learn his
business commences reasoning as fol-
lows: Last year 1 applied ten bushels
of lime to the acre and got 20 bushels
of corn, then this year if I apply 20
bushels of lime I will get 40 bushels Of
corn. But, by and by, he finds out
that his land will not produce ever the
normal yield, so he is in a dilemma as
he knows not the cause of the malady
and knows not how to restore the soil
to it's original fertility. If he had only
been taught that when he was getting
good crops in the case above, he was
doing it at the expense of his soil and
not at the expense of the lime, he
would never have fallen into the error
Lime simply sets free the plant ingre-
dents of the soil SO that the plant could
take them up and make a vigorous
| growth, but when the plant food had
! all been set free then the yield fell be-
! low the normal because the supply had
! been exhausted.
Without a knowledge Of chemistry
! the farmer cannot tell what is deficient
in his soil. But by chemical analysis
| and by systematic experimentation one
| can soon determine as to what ingredi-
| ents his soil is deficient in, and by
knowing the deficit, he can in .elligent-
ly apply fertilizers. In no olher way
can this be done to the best advantage.
If a man knows neither the constitu-
ton of the plant nor the soil he will
never make the most successful and at
the same time the most economical
farmer. Men year after year buy
potassium at a high price and apply to
their soils when in fact their soils need
phosphorus and Ujce UersG.
Intelligent feeding of stock is of
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES to d RETAINER:
The general idea is that if you give
your horse a little corn and fod
der or hay that he will thrive.
Most farmers do not think whether
the horse relishes his food O whether
it would be cheaper to feed some
thing else, and so on they go in
this slipshod way, because they have
never been taught to think about these
things, and hence do not realize their
Importance. The intelligent owner
| aoobo 70 1ool1o tho d,1poh boooto ann
Portable for his own profit and for the
sake of the beasts. Some of the great
est minds of the day are employed in
the study Of animal nutrition. This is
a matter of great profit to the farmer
and great comfort to the animal.
Suppose, for instance, that we feed
our animals corn all the year around,
then we make the animal fat and weak,
and very hot in summer, as corn and
other carbonaceoUs producers are heat
ing foods. In this way we would de-
veIop an abnormal animal and this alb,
normal growth being the thing that we
do not want, for in work animals we
want muscle instead of fat. On the
other hand if we feed our stock nothing
but albumenoids We produce strength
but to keep up the heat of the body
some of the valuable albumenoids are
changed into carbohydrates which are
of much less value than albumenous
matter. A farmer should know the
composition of different food stuffs and
knowing these he can more economic
ally buy and feed. The intelligent
farmer will always feed balanced
rations as it will be for his profit. The
farmer of all men should be a close OBJ
server, and just here comes benefit
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