The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-11-27
A WEIGHTY PROBLEM IMPROVING THE
WORN SOIL.


last issue of the Southern Cultivator
asst follows:
Farmers should keep steadily be-
fore them two leading thoughts,
first, how to produce the largest pos
sible crop second, how to make the
poor fields rich. They are not apt to
forget the first of these. Selfshness
will prompt them to think on that
point. Besides this, so much is
written and spoken on that line. So
many prizes and premiums are offered
that they keep up interest in the
largest yields.
But the second is, in the long run,
fully as important as the first. We
have so much worn land left US by
the folly of those who have preceded
US, and added to by our own folly,
that it is very important to know if
we can restore this land, and if so,
how. The very look Of the farms
emphasizes these questions.
POOR LANDS CAN BE MADE RICH.
That we may understand this point
fully, we must first examine how
they became poor.
All soils contain practically the
same quantities of the mineral ele-
ments of plant food, but they are
soluble and available in some fields
and insoluble and therefore unavail-
able in other fields. Why this differ
ence? Mainly as the result of for
mer treatment
In hill lands the water has been
permitted to carry, off all the soluble
plant food and much of the pulverized
soil from many fields. These fields
are therefore not in condition to pro-
duce good crops. This condition has
been intensified by working these
fields when too wet. The sun and
winds have hardened the mortar.
Very many other fields have been
untitled for production by plowing
when too wet and creating millions
of clods of all sizes. These fields are
not quilted and CALLED like the others,
but do not produce good crops, be-
cause clods do not furnish food to
growing plants.
These two conditions are often
more or less united in the same field.
Both or either make what we call
poor or worn out land.
NO LAND Is WORN OUT.
This is not strictly true. They
are not worn-out or exhausted. They
are simply mismanaged and tempo
rarily disabled. They can be recov-
cred surely and permanently. All
that is needed is first to stop doing
wrong, second to begin doing right.
First stop the washing and leach
ing by deep plowing. Second, stop
making the clods by keeping out of
the fields when soil is wet. Third,
make the plant food soluble and
available by pulverizing the soil.
Break these clods. Crush the soil.
Make it deep and fine by constant
plowing, subsoiling and narrowing
and rolling.
Help all these by mixing in all the
vegetable matter you can with clay,
also by growing such crops as help
to pulverize the soil and at the same
time gather fertility from the air
and fix it in the soil.
All the 1eguminous plants do both
of these. By their deep roots they
pierce the subsoiI. They soon rot
and leave pores for water and air to
get into the soil. The rotting roots
create fermentation and help dissolve,
the potash and phosphates.
Thus they assist the farmer. They
also shade the earth and make it
moist. They leave stubble to rot on
or in the soil
By using both of these methods
we can very surely and rapidly re-
cover worn soils and preserve and
improve goGd soils.
MANURING.
Again, we can do wonders along
this line by saving and spreading all
animal and vegetable manures about
our farms. Never burn anything.
Rot everything. Save all animal
droppings, solid and liquid. Turn in
all vegetable matter we can get to
grow. Plant peas and velvet beans
and clovers for feed to cattle and
manure to the land.
Aid these with commercial fertili-
ZerS.