The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-04-25
The Basis of soiI Fertility Is Humus.

Rob Nature, and she will rob you"
This is a truth, pithily put. which farmers
OF all others should heed. American farm
ers, especially in the West and South,
have been robbing the SOIL and now in
many cases the result is that they are
robbed of the profit they might
make had they adopted different course.
One Of our most observant writer's Prof.
Bailey of Cornell, in an address to nur-
serymen, said: Every ordinary soil
tends to lose Its humus sooner than its
mineral plant food, and most so-called ex-
hausted soils are injured IN their physical
condition rather than exhausted of their
fertility. 1t follows, therefore, that the adj
dition of mere plant food cannot entirely
restore the, generality of worn-out lands.
me physical condition must always re-
celve first attention. The addition of con-
centra ted fertilizers is not a. fundamental
corrective of poor lands, in the vast ma
Jority OF cases. 1t should be considered
as supplement to the treatment of the
land, by means of tillage and cropping"
And yet there are those who
tell us that all that is necessary as to add
the plant foods in the proper proportion
ana give humus a rest" One of the hard
est things to impress upon the owners OF
badly worn lands is the fact that they
cannot be suddenly redeemed by the APP
plcation of commercial fertilizers alone.
Men easily realize that a man who has a
deposit in bank cannot keep drawing on
1t indefinitely unless he keeps the deposit
good. But they fail to realize that the store
OF fertility in piece of fresh land is just
an the nature of a depo7lt, and that con-
unual drafts will deplete il till the drafts
are dishonored so far as full payment is
concerned. They have still some deposit
OF mineral food left but they cannot in the
physical condition OF the soil draw 1t out
me bank is locked and guarded. They
scratch over and over again the shallow
top soil from which they have taken all
TIE available food, and then dribble little
doses of fertilizer in the hope that the med
icine may make the sick soil strong enough
to respond literally, while all the time,
down deep in the land there is an unex-
hiusted store only waiting to be loosened
w and oXidized by the air to make its
store available. They have used up, too,
the organic matter in the soil, and the clay
runs together and makes cultivation more
dfhcult, and necessitates more frequent
Stirring to prevent the crusting of the sur
iace. Then, without consulting the methods
by which nature restores the soil by veg
etabe accommodations, the farmer
rushes to the doctor for prescription for
SICK land. 81 have a piece of land that
last year made ten bushels of corn per
acre want to make a premium crop of
corn on it this year. How much fertih-
ger shall l use to do it?' is an actual ex-
tract of letter from a farmer! There
Is an old Latin proverD. that says memo
repente turpissimus fuit," meaning that
no man ever became thoroughly wicked
al at once. And no land that once was
ieruie ever became poor all at once, and
" VIII moi get rich all at once by the ap-
PlcatLon of concentrated fertilizers These
ave valuable in the hands of thoughtful
farmer and are becoming indispensable in
some form or other in our modern agricul-
lure But they should be used to restore
I%tner than TO further depletel the vege-
tdpie matter in the soil, which is the most
important matter connected with the pro-
UuetVeness Of the soil. Used literally in
this way, TO cause the crops that are to
improve the physical condition of the soil
70 take on superior growth, the CONNER
CLl fertilizers have an inestimable value
WINE In the hands ofsthe dribbler in the
Iurrow to squeeze a little more sale crop
out OF a worn soil they bring poverty 10
'le land and Its owner.