The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1901-12-03
No. 43
Live Stock.
THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY IN TFF
SOUTH.

There is very close relationship
| existing between the soil, the plant
and the animal. Neither can exist
without the other to fulfill it's des-
| tiny within it's name. A soil with
out plant or animal growth is bar
ren, devoid of life, as shown by the
great desert of Northern Africa,
Nature is simple in her relationship,
FIRST, the soil with it's MANY ele.
ments, but of which only ten ara
necessary for the growth of plants.
These elements are the very basis of
all plant and animal life. The bodv
of the animal is made up of the iden-
tical elements found in the plant.
yet the growth of the plant is neces.
sary for the food Of all animal life.
The plant takes from the air and soil
the simple, single chemical elements,
such as nitrogen, phOsphoric aoid,
potash, lime, and few others and
with these builds up plant tissue
which in it's turn is the food of the
animal. Then the animal dies with
its decay and ecomposition comes
the change of animal tissue into
| single, simple chemical elements
again, of which the soil is partially
made. Then the plant grows out OF
the soil and the decay of animal and
pant life to furnish food for the
higher life. The animal feeds on the
new plant or on animals thai have
fed on plant life, until that growth
again nature goes.
Thus we see the cycle of life. But
what has this to do with our sub1ectH
Everything. Aud what follows in
these articles will be along three lines.
| which have to do emphatical1y with
the success. or failure of farming.
There can be no successful agricul-
ture without consideration of these
three propositions
l. A soil rich in single, simple
chemical elements for the free
growth of plant life;
II. An adoption of plant life to
climatic and soil environments, so
"a to produce from the elements in
the soil the largest growth of plant
life for animal food;
III. The feeding of animal life to
produce greatest growth with least
expenditure of plant tissue.
The farmer to make agriculture
remunerative must adapt himself to
these propositions. He must enrich
his soil. And here we find the fun.
damental basis. We have heard a
great deal about worn out lands and
exhausted soils. Practically speak
ing, we are confronted with vast
areas of this kind Of land; yet this
idea is ,llaoy.
WE HAVE NO EXHAUSTED SOILS.
We have only SOILS lacking IN pro-
ductivity because of the physical
and mechanical condition these soils.
To illustrate: In New England we
have vast areas, as we have in the
South, of farms that yield no profit
able crops. You find those soils dead,
depleted, ifeless But they are not
worn-Out, they are not exhausted.
In New Hampshire, the writer, by
tillage, crop rotation and fertiliza-
tion increased hay lands tr M less
than half ton per acre to thrt g tons
and over in three years time. Let
US look at these sO-called soils of the
South. You say they no longer pro-
duce paying crops. And they will
not if they are abused. They hold
within their surface large quantities
of plant 70 d.
WHAT THE so CALLED EXHAUSTED
SOILS CONTAIN.
The writer collected the analyses
of AZ so-called exhausted sci and
found that on an average they oOn-
tained within the eight inches Of
surface soil nearly 4 OOO pounds of
nitrogen, 5000 pounds of phOsphOrio
acid, and 1880 pounds of potash.
There, in those ''exhausted soils" to
the depth of eight inches, was enough
plant food for hundred crops of
wheat of thirty bushels per acre.
Small crops result because the
plant food is not available. We have
''run them down." or in other words
we have taken out the available, as.
simila BILE plant food, without permit
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