Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1895-11-28
MINERAL MANURES.
An Editorial from American Cultivator
on the Use of It.

Lack or phosphate is what mainly
ails the exhausted or partly exhausted
farm lands of the eastern and middle
states, both north and south. 1t is the
of the countries that are
largely exporters of agricultural prod
ucts that they sooner or later become
exhausted of their mineral fertility.
The rapid improvements in agricuI-
tural machinery, enabling farmers to
crop and harvest a greater acreage,
have fastened this exhaustion This
necessarily increases the growing of
grain at the expense of stock keeping
and breeding. When a due proportion
OF the farm is devoted to dairying. 10
wool growing and the breeding of
horses, hogs and poultry, it is possible
to sell farm products i'll this secondary
way and thus remove only a small
amount of minolal fertilizer from the
soil.
But this applies only to soils that
have their original fertility unim-
paired. On many farms in the older
states the mischief 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 resumed.
In the southern states this exhaustive
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 war the southern states were
the chief market for mineral fertil-
izers with which to grow their cotton
and tobacco crops. These fertilizers
were used much more largely than
they have ever been in any of the
northern states. But even with min
eral fertilizers, the southern planter
growing no grass or clover, had to let
his land rest after 4 few years crop
ping.
We manage this much better here.
The use of mineral fertilizers on
northern farms is almost always COM
bined with clover and grass crops,
which conserve fertility and nelp to
keep the land in good condition. We
do not find here that the use of fer
tiliZers leaves the land after a series
of years too poor to grow anything.
On the contrary, by making a larger
growth of clover the land is made
richer i'll heterogeneous plant food. 1t is
true, the clover does not add to The
mineral fertility of the soil, except by,
to some extent. drawing it up from the
subsoil. There is also on some soils a
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 mineral plant food has be
come reduced so that it is nO longer
sufficient for a good crop, it must be
supplied III available form with every
crop sown.
This does not often happen with
heavy soils. Before they become en-
tirely exhausted nature locks up their
mineral fertility and holds the key I'M
til some skillful farmer finds way to
unlock it. But even on such soils min
eral manures are often helpful, be-
cause they are available for plant use,
while that which the soil contains is
not Glover and better cultivation
will do much for such soils. 1t IS
sometimes a question with farmers on
heavy, clay land whether they shall
apply mineral manures or take the
more laborious method of developing
fertility by superior methods of cult
walton. Yet until the land can be
made to grow large clover crops, it
will in most cases, be cheaper to rely
in part, especially for early crops, on
the application of mineral fertilizers.
1t makes a great deal of difference
what was the original character of the
soil. If it was originally rich in min
eral elements, it may generally be
taken for granted that 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 whose judiciOus appli-
cation of either potash or phosphate, or
both, will not produce a paying in
crease in the crop. So long as this is
true the use of these mineral manures
cannot be wisely dispensed with.
Many a farmer who has thought 10
economic by saving in the purchase of
fertilizer has found when harvested
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 large yield. 1t is very rarely
that poor crops pay. The large crops
are only produced by liberal applica-
tons of fertilizers, supplemented by
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