The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-18


The whole subject of plant feeding is,
after ALL one of comparative simplicity,
and any farmer should be abe to mas
ter 1t with but little study, says the Flor
ida Agriculturist. The earth is a store
house of food upon which plants feed.
Every year each crop is raised upon any
certain piece of land removes just so much
avilable nourishment. If the soil was or
iginally very rich il can stand the drain
for a long time without any apparent de-
crease in yield of the growing crop. On
the other hand, if the soil originally con-
tanned only a small quantity of plant food
the supply available 20 growing crops viii
reach the point bordering on exhaustion"
with much greater rapidity.
1t is apparent in every case, where the
soil has reached that point where it fails
to produce profitable results, either
through a long or a short series of years
of cultivation without fertilization, that
something must be done to restore it to its
former state of fertility. Il is true that
il is much more economical to keep up the
soils natural supply of fertility rather
than 10 let il run down and then attempt
TO renew 1t. But the sad fact confronts
us that there are thousands of acres of
WORKOUT or exhausted soils in this coun-
| try and the question is not now what
we might have done to prevent such a
| condition of affairs. but rather what shall
| we do to improve matters
| When agricultural chemists made their
| discoveries that nature furnished certain
| raw materials which would restore to the
! soil her lost ingredients, many thought the
| problem was solved at once and that all
| that was necessary was to apply so many
! pounds of these respective fertilized ma
terials each year and bountiful crops
| would follow. The result of this has baen
that the commercial fertilizer trade has
( assumed enormous proportions in this
| country. II is equally true that in the
I application of these thousands of tons (
plant food there is much extravaganza and
waste. II is not necessary to discuss here
! the question whether or not fertilizers
pay, This fact has already been proved
long ago, but what We want to know is
how we should use them so as to get the
greatest profit from them.
We have found out, or rather il has been
found out for us. that of all the seventy
five elements which make up the soil only
| about fourteen enter into the composition
| of plants, and of these fourteen it is only
| necessary for the farmer to concern him.
self with three and sometimes four These
! are phospboric acid, nitrogen and potash
| and occasionally lime. Therefore wnist
we speak of an exhausted soil we simply
mean a soil which has been deprived OF
denuded of its contents of phosphoTic acid
nitrogen and potash; hence when we speak
about restoring the fertility of our soil we
mean simply the renewal of the four in.
gradients mentioned. Here, again in thi.
process nature comes 10 our rescue
through her wise provision of a certain
species of plants known as '1egumes
among which are clovers, beans, peas and
Yetches, having given them the property
Of getting nitrogen, (Which, by the way
costs about three times as much as phos
phoric acid and potash, from the am
therefore, in fertillzing these crops the far
mer has only to buy two fertilizer ingredi
ents instead of three. Then, the jlidiciou.
application of some good phosphate anl
potash fertilizer, like phosphoric acid anC
muriate of potash, will greatly nourish the
peas or clover, as the case may be, which
in turn will absorb a vast quantity of nj
trogen from the air. At maturity III,
whole mass can be turned under thus en-
riching the soil in the three essential plan
food ingredients, and at the same time sup
plying the much needed humus.