The Van Buren press., 1895-02-16
FARMER AND PLANTER
REcLAlMlNo WORN SOILS.

RECLAIMlN0 WORN SOILS.
4 Lesson In Rotation and tho Proper APP
plication of Fertilizers.
A correspondent in Chesterfield
county. s. c., asks our advice in regard
to the improvement Of piece OF land
which he says he has cultivated for
many years and turned out, but being
convenient he began to try to get it
up some years ago. He describes 1t as
a rolling. rocky and gravelly soil, with
q clay subsoil. He began its improve
ment by spreading fifteen bushels OF
cotton seed per acre, and put it in
wheat After the wheat was cut he
spread about 100 pounds of KANT per
acre and sowed it in peas. This was
six years ago, and he says, in some
what vague way, that similar treat
ment has been given it since. One year
it was in cotton, but it did not make
more than 600 to 700 pounds seed
cotton per acre, with small
dose of acid phosphate and kainit
mixed at the rate of to 4. He
spring, and thinks Of using thirty
bushels of cotton seed per acre, GOO
pounds Of acid phosphate and 400
pounds OF kainit per acre, or, we sup
pose he means per acre, though he
does not say so.
The mistake our friend made in the
first place was in using very small
dose Of kainit alone on his peas. No
doubt they needed potash rs most of
our land does, but it is an error that
many people make in supposing that
potash can have its full effect on
poor land when applied alone. Plants
need potash to enable them to make
starch, and build up therefrom by
various combinations their woody
structure and mature crops. But in or
der to do this there must be a vigorous
activity in the vital principle of the
plant. To get this vital vigor they
need nitrogen and phosphorus in the
shape Of phosphoric acid. When these
are present the activity. of the vital
functions of the plant enables it to use
large amount Of potash, which it
could not use if applied alone to
starving plant. If our friend had in
the first place, instead Of using little
fertilizer in haphazard sort of way,
begun well-considered and systematic
plan of rotation Of crops, with proper
ly-proportioned fertilizers in connec-
tion with the pea crop, his land would
have been in far better condition to-
day. If he had applied in the first
place a liberal dressing of acid phos
phate, with a more liberal dress
ing OF kainit, to the first crop
of peas, they would have made
a much more luxuriant growth, and
would have gathered from the air an
abundant store of nitrogen and fixed
it in the soil ready for the next crop,
and the course Of improvement well
followed up would have by this time
resulted in fertile soil. That by the
use of the cheaper forms of mineral
fertilizers we can bring our lands up
to high state OF fertility, and at the
same time make them pay for their inn
provement has been proven. This is
farming and this is what our southern
farmers must learn if our waste places
are to be restored. Anyone can buy a
lot of fertilizers and pile them on the
land and make crop, If they have the
money and do not count the cost, but
1t takes good farming to make a liberal
yet wise expenditure and make a
profit while getting good crops and
at the same time make the land
grow more fertile. Now under his
present conditions we would advise
our correspondent to adopt the follow
ing plan; Make mixture of 1000
pounds OF acid phosphate, 700 pounds
OF cotton-seed meal and 800 pounds of
muriate of potash to make ton. This
will give him a fairly good, complete
fertilizer. Now let him use 500 pounds
of this on his oat crop. 1t may not and
probably will not pay him in the crop
OF oats, for at the best the spring sown
oat crop is very uncertain one in the
south, but he will get the effect in the
pea crop that should be sown on the
land as soon as the oats are out. Let
these peas die down on the land and
in early September or late August sow
crimson clover all over the peas at the
rate of Is pounds of seed per acre. In
the spring as soon as the clover
shows bloom plow it and the dead pea
vines under as deep as good team of
horses can bury them and plant the
land in corn. Plant peas again in the
corn, and hog them down in the fall,
and get the land plowed early for the
cotton crop to be planted the following
spring. With this crop of cotton use
the mixture of acid phosphate and
potash without the cotton-seed meal,
unless you have plenty of it without
buying. After the last working of the
cotton sow crimson clover seed again
all through the cotton. Now this crop
the next April as soon as in bloom for
hay, and at once put the land in peas
to be mown for hay in August and the
the land prepared and sown in winter
oats, using on them the phosphate and
potash mixture, and thereafter repeat
the rotation. This will give you
good four-year rotation, and by this
time you will have your land in very
different condition, and will have got
ten enough out of it to pay for the i'm
provement. 1t would be better, the
year that it was put in corn, to give
dressing of lime after plowing for corn
and before planting, if the lime can be
had at reasonable figure. You will
notice that say cotton-seed meal and
not cotton seed. If you have the seed,
and can get a fair price for it, it is bet
ter to sell and buy the meal, and if you
have to buy the seed, buy meal in
stead. also advice the use OF muriate
of potash instead of the crude kainit