The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-03
Feeding Crops.

Feeding Crops.
If crops are to be grown food must be
supplied for their nourishment, says the
Practical Farmer A plant can no more
live without food than can an animal.
And if it is to be profitable to the grow
er there must be as wise an adoption of
the food to the wants of the plant as there
is in the case of the animal. The food
must be sufficient in quantity. suitable
in quality, and must be supplied when need
ed
Too many crops are not given the food
that is needed for their perfect develop
ment. To a large extent they are left In
forage for themselves. This, too. IN a
great many cases, by men who are care
full to feed their animals well. These
men believe that it pays to keep a good
supply of food for their animals, and keep
it where it can be obtained with but little
difficulty. They do not make their AMI
mails work all day to get bare subsis-
tence. Yet 1t would hardly be more un-
profitable to do this than it is to fail TO
provide ample stores of food for .heir
cultivated plants. 1t is true that plants
can obtain a good deal of food for them
selves. They grow in waste places and
uncultivated fields without help from
like the vigor and development that they
would have If the conditions were more
favorable The same is true, though, to
less extent, of the cultivated plants
that are supplied with only small guam
| titles of food. Scanty feeding does not
bring the farmer either large or profitable
crops.
The quality of food is as important as is
its quality. This is as true of plants as it
is of animals. Sometimes crops are small
upon land that received a considerable
quantity of fertilizer and that brand, and,
perhaps, commercial fertilizers in general,
may be condemned by the man who has
thus been disappointed in the result of his
! efforts to obtain large yield. But the
fault may not have been with the fertilizer.
If a man gives his animals food that is
not at all suited to their wants he cannot
| expect good results to follow. But plants
are just as particular about their food
as are animals. No one would think of
! keeping his horse and his hogs on the same
kind of food. Yet there are men who will
| buy fertilizer for some special crop and
use it, not only for that crop, but for sew
eral other crops. The mixture may have
| been the best that could have been made
! for the crop for which it was recommended
| and yet have been of comparatively lit
| tie use for some of the other crops upon
| which it was used For these crops there
may have been a great deficiency of one
| of the elements needed to make a suita-
| bic fertilizer and an excess of other ele-
ments. But the excess Of the latter cannot
atone for the deficiency of the former.
| The old rule in natural philosophy holds
good here: "A chain is no stronger. than it's
weakest link" 1t is not the average guam
tity of the needed elements that deter
| mines the value of fertilizer, but the
smallest quantity of any one of the more
important kinds. The quantity of fertilizer,
such as 1t is, may be large and there may
be a great deal more nitrogen and phos-
phoric acid than is needed, and yet the
plants may be half starved because of a
lack OF potash. Or. there may be an
abundance of potash and a deficiency of
some of the other elements, in which case
the result will be equally unsatisfactory.
With the plant, as with the animal, il
the food is TO be properly utilized II must
be supplied at the right time. 1t does not
answer to keep an animal on short atoms
during the early period of it's existence
and feed 1T heavily after il has become
stunted by lack of sufficient food. Neither
will 1t do to feed well at some times and
give but little food at other periods. Lib
eral feeding must be constant If it is to
be successful. The same rule applies TO
plants. If the best results are TO be Sc
cured the plants must be amply supplied
with the kinds of food which they require
and that supply must be maintained from
the time the seed terminates until the
proper stage for harvesting has been
reached. 1t is right at this point that
many failures are made. Often manure
is applied just before the seed Is put into
the ground. Perhaps 1t is used i'm suffi-
cient quantity to make a fine crop, but it
takes some time for much OF II TO become
available. and so the plant does not get a
sufficient quantity OF food during one of
the critical times of its life. II a little
fertilizer had been used TO give the plants
a start, the manure would have carried
them out in a vigorous growth. Not infre-
quently the trouble comes at the other
end of the line. The supply Of available
food materials Is so nearly exhausted be-
fore the plants are mature that they are
not nearly as prolific as they otherwise
would have been. The crop, In such a
case, Is small. because at a certain period
and perhaps a brief one, the supply OF
food for the plants was inadequate.