The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-09

Cultivator. 1t is the misfortune of the
countries that are largely exporters of
agricultural products that they sooner or
later become exhausted of their mineral
fertility. The rapid improvements in ag
ricultural machinery, enabling farmers 20
crop and harvest a greater acreage, hav-
ing FASTENED this exhaustion. This
necessarily increases the growing OF
grain at the expense of stock keeping and
breeding. When a due proportion of the
farn is devoted to dairying, to wool grow
ing, and the breeding of horses, hogs and
poultry, il is possible to sell farm pro
ducts in this secondary way and thus
remove only a small amount of mineral
fertilizer from the soil
But this applies only to soils that have
their original fertility unimpairedOn
many farms in the older states the mis-
chief has already been done. The mineral
plant food has been sold off in crops of
one kind or another. 1t must be restored
before profitable cropping can be re-
sumed. In the southern states this eX-
haustive process was more rapid than in
the north, mainly because the farms were
larger and there was not even in the early
days much reliance on stable manure nor
any considerable amount of stock TO make
it. For years before the civil var the
southern states were the chief market
for mineral fertilizers with which to
grow their cotton and tobacco crops
lHeSe IeTJllLelS were uSE1 nuCD UlOIt
largely than they have ever been in any
of the northern states. But even with
mineral fertilizers the southern
planter, growing no grass or clover, had
10 let his land rest after few years crop
ping.
We manage this much better here. The
use of mineral fertilizgrs on northern
farms is almost always combined with
clover and grass crops, which conserve
fertility and help &c keep the land in good
condition. We do not find here that the
use of fertilizers leaves the land after
series of years too poor to grow any
thing. On the contrary, by making a
larger growth of clover the land is made
richer in heterogeneous plant food. 1t is
true, the clover does not add to the min
eral fertility of the soil, except by, to
some extent, drawing IL up from the
subsoil. There is also on some sort
gradual decomposition of the rocks from
which the soil is originally formed, but
this is a very slow process. and cannot
be depended on. When the available min
eral plant food has become reduced so
that it is no longer sufficient for a good
crop, it must be supplied in available
form with every crop sown.
This does not often happen with heavy
rolls. Before they become entirely ex-
hausted nature locks up their mineral
fertility and holds the key until some
skillful farmer finds a way to unlock it.
But even on such soils mineral manureS
are often helpful, because they are avail
able for plant use, while that which the
soil contains is not. Glover and better
cultivation will do much for such soils.
1t is sometimes question with farmers
on heavy, clay land whether they shall APP
ply mineral manures or take the more
laborious method of developing fertility
by superior methods of cultivation. Yet
until the land can be made to grow large
clover crops. it will, in most cases, he
cheaper to rely in part, especially for early
crops, on the application of mineral fer
tilizers.
1t makes a great deal of difference what
was the original character of the soil If It
was originally rich in mineral elements, II
may generally be taken for granted thai
enough of these remain to supply at least
a part of what the crop requires. 1t will
not pay. even with the best of these soils,
to depend wholly on natural supplies OF
mineral plant food We do not know any
land where judicious applications of eth
er potash or phosphate, or both, will not
produce a paying increase in the crop. So
long as this is true the use of these min
eral manures cannot be wisely dispensed
with Many a farmer who has thought
to economic by saving in the purchase
of fertilizers has found when he har-
vested the crop a poorer return for his
labor and less increase in the fertility of
his soil than he would have had by pur-
chasing what the crop required to make
a large yield 1t is very rarely that poor
crops pay. The large crops are only pro-
duced by liberal applications of fertilizers,
supplemented by thorough cultivation.