Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1896-12-09

food it may contain. A clay soil which
has been producing good crops for any
number of years may be so seriously
injured by one injudicious blowing in
wet time as to ruin it for the growing
of crops for two or three years. The
injury lies in the modification of it's
physical texture, not in the lessening
Of it's fertility. A sandy soil may also
be seriously impaired for the growing
of any crop if the humus
or decaying organic matter is
allowed to burn out of it.
1t then becomes leachy, it quickly loses
its moisture, and becomes excessively
hot in bright sunny weather. Similar
remarks may be applied to all soils.
That is, the texture or physical condi-
ton of the soil is nearly always more
important than its mere richness in
plant food. A finely divided, mellow,
friable soil is more productive than
hard and lumpy one of the same chem
ical composition because: 1t holds and
retains more moisture holds more air;
presents greater surface to the roots;
promotes nitrification; hastens the de-
composition of mineral elements; has
less variable extremes of temperature;
allows better root-hold to the plant.
In all these ways, and others, the mel
lowness of the soil renders the plant
food more available and affords con-
genial and comfortable place in which
the plant may grow.
The reader will now see the folly of
applying commercial or concentrated
fertilizers to lands of poor texture. He
will see that If potash, for example,
were applied to the hard Jumps of clay
1t could not be expected to aid in the
growth of plants, because plants cannot
grow on such soil. If the same quantity
were applied to proper soil, however,
the greater part of it would be pre-
sented to the roots of plants at once,
and its effects would no doubt be ap-
parent in the seasons crop. The read
er will readily understand that it is
useless to apply commercial fertilizers
to lands which are not in proper phys
ical condition for the very best growth
of crops
Farmers do not appreciate the i'm
portance of humus as an ameliator of
land. In farm lands, it is usually sup
| piled in the form of green crops, stub
BILE or sward, and barn manures. When
humus is absent, sandy soils become
too loose and leachy and hot, and clay
soils bake and become lumpy.
The writer has much of this hard
unproductive land. What is to be done
with it? To cover it with commercial
fertilizer would be of little benefit. 1t
must first be put in fit condition for the
! growing of crops. A crop of clover
! plowed under would quickly improve
it, but the land is newly planted to or
chard and he does not care to seed it
down. The next recourse is stable ma
nure. OF this enough can be had to
cover the hardest spots. For the rest,
catch or cover crops must be used Fol-
lowing beans or potatoes, he can SOW
rye and plow it under very early in the
spring. Now and then he can use a
fall crop OF sowed corn or oats or some
thing of the kind After a time, he
may be able to get the land in such a
condition of filth as to secure an occa-
sional stand of crimson clover. This
practice, continued judiciously for a
few years, ought to radically change
the character of the land; but all this
will be of little avail unless the plow-
ing and cultivation-whicha are now Sc
inadequate-can be done in a timely
and intelligent way. All this will take
time and patience. He wishes that
there were some shortcut and lazy way
of improving this land by making some
application of fertilizer to it, but there
Is not The most he can do is to slowly
bring it into such condition that it will
pay to put concentrated fertilizers or
it. In short, the first step in the enrich.
ment of unproductive land is to i'm.
prove its physical condition by means
of careful and thorough tillage, by the
addition of humus, and perhaps by un
derdrainage. 1t must first be put il
such condition that plants can grow il
1t. After that, the addition of chem
ical fertilizers may pay by giving addi
donal or redundant growth
l.. H. Bailey.