The Bossier banner., 1894-06-14
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FERTILIZATION.

FERTILIZATION.
"General Principles" of Fertilization, or
How to Increase the average"
The great reproach to agriculture is the beg
carly average yield per acre, as reported
IN the census returns compared with that har-
vested by our best farmers. Thousands Of
farmers harvest from six to ten bushels Of
wheat, twelve to sixteen Of corn, twenty-five
to thirty Of oats one hundred and eighty to
two hundred pounds OF lint cotton per acre,
while others, their neighbors, make twenty to
thirty-five bushels of wheat, fifty to seventy
five bushels OF corn, eighty to one hundred
bushels OF oats, and five to seven hundred
pounds Of cotton per acre. tits strange that so
many-in fact a majority Of farmers-will con-
tent themselves with results that are areproach
to agriculture and the country. These are not
the results of laziness or dissipation, except in
rare cases, but of bad management, attempting
to do more than can be done we'll and conse-
quent faulty preparation OF the soil, and poor
cultivation; lack of care in the selection of
varieties and seed, and often of ignorance of
the best methods of cultivation. Last June
the writer saw turning plows choking every
two or three rods with corn roots and cotton
laid by with the same implement In July. The
most rational way to account for the great dis
parity of yields is the great number of farmers
farmers institutes, nor make any efforts to
keep up with the improvements of the day.
Texas Farm and Ranch December 16. 1893
We have no fears of giving too much
of a good thing when we quote the
above article entire; in its entirety it
is unfortunately too true. The saw
erage" yields per acre are so small as
to be out of all proportion with
the natural fertility of the soil;
and as above stated the beggarly
average yields are a reproach to agri-
culture. But how about that large
army who fall below the average-the
minimum farmer? The writer of above
enumerates some of the causes which
operate to bring about these minimum
crops, viz: First, in rare cases, laziness
or dissipation. Second, bad manage
ment. Third, attempting to do more
than can be done well (this is, in our
opinion, and throughout the entire
south, if not the whole of Uncle Sans
vast domain, the main and leading
cause), and consequently, fourth. faul-
ty preparation of the soil, and fifth,
poor cultivation; sixth, lack of care in
the selection of varieties, and seventh,
seed; eighth, land often of ignorance
of the best methods of cultivation"
That each and all of the above are
true causes, we are satisfied. The
remedy in each case is so obvious, and
SO often dwelt upon by farm
writer's of any and every grade,
that we forbear further comment
thereon at this time and proceed with
our subject, viz, the general principles
of rational fertilization. Our friends
of the inexhaustible Brazos river bot
tom, and the famous fertile black land,
will doubtless think it is like our i'm
pudence to even talk fertilizers to a
Texan. We fancy we hear Uncle
Snort say: THAT fool of Mississip-
plan ought to be kicked to death by a
jackass, and I'd like to be the one to do
it" But though the major portion of
Texas is so exceedingly rich as to be
almost inexhaustibleeo eofttimes being as
black and rich thirty feet below as at
the surface, not even Texan nor a
Connecticut Yankee can invent a plow
that will bring this rich, black, unc-
tious soil from those great depths to
the surface. Neither can they, by any
known method of cultivation, induce
the laterals or feeding roots to go down
in search of this vast bed of hidden
fertility. This fact tends to
equalize things, to even them up.
and throws US all on com
mon level by confning us to the top
layer, or upper twelve to eighteen
inches of soil. Although it is impossl-
BILE to exhaust a soil thirty feet deep of
all its fertility, it is not impossible to
so impoverish, by continued cropping
and a want of judicious rotation,
coupled with the soil-robbing process
of taking everything off the soil and
putting nothing back, that obtain in
all naturally rich and fertile sections
of country, the upper layer-twelve
inches-of soil as that the cultivation
thereof ceases to be remunerative.
This fact has been abundantly sub
stantiated on the older-settled portions
OF what used to be the great west, viz,
Indiana and Illinois. The time to save
thing is when we have it; it is ever
lastinglv too late to undertake to save
it after it is gone. ga word to the
wise is sufficient" ETC., etc, etc. Texas
is truly grand and great country, an
empire within itself. 1t is full of mag
nificent possibilities as well as
what is of infinitely greater import
ance-actualities, and possesses quite
a variety of both climates and soils. 1t
is this multiplicity of soils that en-
boldens us in writing this article; real |
ly it is the latter fact that creates the
necessity for it. At farmers institutes
and in the agricultural press, no sub.
Ject has been deemed of greater i'm
portance, none having been discussed |
more than that of rational fertilization:
yet in spite of so much discussion, no |
subject connected with vital, practical |
agriculture seems to be less under |
stood. Were all soils alike in chemical |
composition, mechanical division, or
texture and productive capacity, even
though they were all poor, judicious
fertilization would cease to be the com.
plex problem it now is This COM
plexity of the fertilizing prob
lem ceases to exist when the