The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1899-12-23
FARMER AND PLANTER.
CROP CHARACTERISTICS.
Tobacco and Potatoes Have Many
Cultural Conditions I'm COmmons
and Both are Money CFOps.

In general way, high class tobae-
co and potatoes have many cultural
conditions in common. For example,
both require deeply worked, well
titled soil, and both crops suffer II
grown with coarse barnyard manures.
or even any kind of farmyard manures
unless it has been thoroughly decom-
posed in the soil-that is, changed
broadly in its nature. Tobacco and
potatoes are alike in having little pow
er to forage for plant food; in both
crops the root systems are heshy and
have a very slight development Of the
small fibrous feeding roots. As these
small fibrous roots are the chief forag-
ing agents of plants, it is evident that
from their absence, tobacco and pota-
toes must be given readily available
plant food; also, that the plant food
should be applied closely about the
growing plants. This may seem
point of minor Importance, but a few
practical field trials will tell quite an-
other story.
Perhaps the most important point In
considering the characteristics OF to-
bacco and potatoes, lies in the fieshy
nature of the roots A soil may con-
tain potash and phosphates for thou
sands cf crops of either, and yet fail
to produce profitable return.
The fact that a soil contains large
quantities of potash and phosphates is
of little importance with these crops;
everything depends whether such pot
ash and phosphates are available-that
is, soluble in soil waters. Now, it is
very plain that any potash or phos-
pilates existing in the soil naturally
il state of solution must sooner or
later be washed out through drainage,
consequently the liberal feeding of
such crops as tobacco and potatoes be-
comes serious problem. In those sec
tions which have become noted for
either crop, the experience of years of
cultivation has resulted in annual APP
plications of the necessary plant food.
The quantity and quality of this
necessary plant food is still matter
of some dispute, though there is no
dispute as to the necessity of liberal
feeding. By some growers it is claimed
that any form of plant food contain
ing chIorides are more or less harmful
to either tobacco or potatoes, while
other authorities of equal weight
claim that chlorides are practically
harmless if applied some months be-
fore seeding, and that no loss will oc-
cur from such early applications. A
very good way to steer clear of this
point is to use potash in the form of
high grade sulphate; this form con-
tains no chlorides, and costs per unit
of actual potash very little more than
the mnriate. Of course in mixed fer
tilizers it is not always possible to tell
in what form the potash exists, but.
most fertilizer manufacturers make
brands especially for these two crops,
which are practically free of chlorides.
AS to the quantity of fertilizer to
use,we have little concordance of opin-
ion. The manufacturers of fertilizers
fail to agree on this point. In gen
eral way, the chemical analysis of the
crop shows the proportions in which
nature in the form of the growing
plant makes up its plant food, while
man may improve on this, still on gen
eral principals an act of nature is use
full as suggestion if not as an act
ual guide. These analysis vary some
what, and the farmer will do well to
communicate with his state agricul-
tural experiment station, for special
examples. In comparing manufac-
tured fertilizers with such tables of
analysis, it is well to keep in mind
that the fertilizer nitrogen required
by crops is largely derived from le-
guminous crops, such as clovers.-S.
Peacock, in Farmers Home Journal