The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1898-06-28
Exhaustion Of Soils.


noticeable upon many of our soils where
some special crop has been grown for
series of years without intcrmisson. In
parts of the Ohio Valley soils that TWEEN
ty years ago produced amazing crops of
corn without any fcrtilizing have dctcri-
grated to such an extent that fair crop
cannot be grown very well. Summe
droughts mi urc these inferior crops much
more than the luXuricnt growths ON bet
ter soil. The same is true in the North
west, where wheat has been raised con-
tinuously fo' nany years. This cxhaus-
| ton of the soil has induced some farm
crs to claim that it is impossible to raise
either wheat or corn in these regions as
chcaply us Il few years ago, and that
farmers cannot make Il living with these
grains at present prices.
Ncars ago Eastern farmers, or at least
some Of them, learned the lesson Of cx-
hauston Of soil through continuous cul-
tivation, and adaptation to the change
has been slow but sure, Today we find
ton three times as long as some of these
Western farms yielding better crops
| than those in the Ohio Valley Or in the
Northwest. a recent examinations of
the soils OF these old farms and the COM
| parativcly new Western soil showed
| that the former were richer in plant food
| and humus. A chemical analysis showed
that potash, nitrogen and lime were
more abundant in the well cultivated
| Eastern soils than TN the corn or wheat
| lands Of the West.
This may seem surprising t., many
Western farmers who have looked upon
| their soils as the richest in the world
capable of yielding large crops without
| fcrtilizing or very much cultivation.
| But the fact in many cases is overlooked
| that soils in the West arc rapidly dctc-
riorating through the continuous cultiva-
! ton Of single crops, while in the East a
systematic rotation of crops is not only
returning the fertility of the soil, but
| actually adding to it, This, of course,
docs not apply TO all farms, but to the
| majority Of the best cultivated ones.
Long ago Eastern farmers discovered
! that it twas necessary to adopt rotation
of crops or abandon their farms alto
gcthcr. They took the only wise course,
and their farms are paying investments
even in these hard times.
1>,, # I,
ton made Il series Of chemical analyses
of 80 different soils in the West to dc
tcrminc the effect Of continuous cultiva-
ton. The top soil and subsoil were
| used in this test. The result Of the ex~
pcrimcnts showed that after eight to
twelve years of continuous cultivation
the nitrogen in the soil was reduced
from onc-third to onc-half and the
potash and phosphatcs almost as much.
The original supply of humus WIS re-
duccd from 80 TO 50 per cent, in The
| same time. If the process continued the
soils would be brought to the point
where they could not be cultivated
proftably 1t was furthermore shown
that the exhausted soils suffered greatly
from droughts, while the land rich in
humus and nitrogen stood the dry
weather very satisfactorily.
This process, however, is just re-
vcrscd where a rotation of crops, in
which grass and clover figure prominent
ly, is practiccd Instead of dctcriorat-
ing, the soils gradually gain in richness,
SO that in time the commercial fertilizers
arc needed but very little. The true
supply Of fertility comes from the grass
and vegetable material supplied by good
cultivation and through the application
Of barnyard manure. If farmers would
all realize this, the fertilizer question of
the future would be readily solved by
many who today predict dire disasters
to farming, when the cost of fcrtilizing
the soil will cat up all the profits.
There is no such condition of affairs 10
come, if true rotation Of crops is prac-
tiCcd-PrOf II. II. Mason in American
Cultivator.