The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1899-02-01
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TREATMENT OF WORN SOILS.
Rational Methods TO Maintain the Fer
tilIty of the Farm Lands.


tillty OF the Farm Lands.
The greater part Of the farm land of
this country has been under cultiva-
tion comparatively short time. The
soil was very productive, as rule,
when cropping was begun, indicating
the presence of an abundance of avail
able plant food. Notwithstanding the
briefness of the period of cultivation,
especially west of the Alleghanies, we
already hear much about worn" and
"unproductive" soils. New land, after
few years of cropping, ceases to pro-
duce as we'll as il did at first, and no
problem is of more general interest to
farmers than that of maintaining the
productive power of the soil.
Many people have jumped to the
conclusion that, as we draw hundreds
of millions of bushels of wheat, corn,
oats, rye, potatoes, etc, from the farms
to meet the demands of our markets
each year, the depletion of our soils
must be an unavoidable result until
we are willing to buy and return to
our land all the phosphoric acid and
potash that these crops have removed,
and, in addition, all the nitrogen that
has not been replaced from the stores
in the air by the use of plants like
clover. The theory is a pretty one on its
face, and it only needs truth to make it
valuable. The three elements named
are not the only ones removed from
/ l,xvsa ltk nth oil a
ments are not considered because they
are available in most soils for the full
requirements of plants. Science points
out the fac. that the phosphoric acid
and potash are in great present abun-
dance in all naturally fair soils, but we
do not find these elements in available
form to the extent required by plants.
If we can make some of these stores
available, it is just as irrational to de-
pend upon outside sources-commer-
cial fertiizers-for all the phosphoric
acid and potash required by plants as
it would to buy all the other minerals
needed by plants. and of which we
hear nothing because the soil nearly
always contains an available supply.
Usually a worn soil is unproductive
because it does not have full supply
OF available plant food, and because its
mechanical condition is bad Constant
cropping has used up the available sup
ply of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
potash-the three elements furnished
by complete fertilizer-to such an
extent that with poor mechanical con-
dition of the soil full crop is out of
the question. A few years ago we were
taught by some writer's that rational
treatment of worn soil meant the
purchase of these three elements for
it; the mechanical condition, which af-
fects the supply of moisture, was
;gnorad. Now that it is generally
known that the legumes, such as clover
and peas, furnish cheap nitrogen, it is
insisted that we must buy the phos-
phoric acid and potash. The great un-
available stores in the soil are ignored,
as is the moisture question likewise.
But science is coming forward with
explanations of what the practical
farmer already knew, viz: A rotting
sod in the soil secures to a crop plant
ed in it supply of available elements,
and the physical condition of the land
is such that good yields can be OBJ
tanned.
The constant cropping of new land
exhausts the organic matter in it rap
idly, and then comes a state of partial
soil exhaustion. The plowing-under
of sods and manurial crops results in
the freeing of mineral plant food in
the soil, and in such improvement OF
the mechanical condition that supply
of moisture may be controlled. A
clover sod cannot add pound of phos-
phoric acid to land, but careful expert
ment showed that there was twice as
much available in the soil after GRIM
son clover had been turned under rs
was the case before it was grown. In
its growth, doubtless, and in its fer
mentation, some of the original supply
in the land was made available. A ra-
tional system of maintaining fertility
means the maintenance of the original
high percentage of humus by the
plowing-under of sods and manurial
crops, with the certainty that where
the percentage of vegetable matter in
the soil is kept high, there will stores
of mineral elements be made available
sufficiently to afford cheap and valu-
able supply.
The soil whose percentage OF humus
has run low as result of constant
cropping without the incorporation of
sods, stable manure or other organic
matter with it, is in an almost helpless
condition. 1t cannot free the mineral
elements for its use as fast as needed,
and it loses control of the moisture.
Becoming hard-packed, it is sodden
after rain, and then very dry after a
short drouth. By the application of
costly available plant food in the form
of chemicals, such land will produce
good crop in moist season. In
fuenced by specious reasoning, not q
few farmers have supposed that no
other way of securing and maintain
ing productiveness is practicable, and
that there is nearly total depend
ence upon outside sources for the
three valued elements of fertilizers.
The necessity of humus is lost sight
t of. When q soil is in this helpless
! condition, fertilizers are necessary for
y the growth of n heavy sod and herein