Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1901-10-28
Beans on soil.

Beans are not necessarily an ex~
haustive crop upon the soil. One
Thousand pounds of bean straw will
remove from the land about the fol-
lowing quantities of plant food: Nitro
gen, 13 h.; phosphoric acid, fb.;
potash, 18tb. One thousand pounds OF
beans will remove the following
amounts of plant food Nitrogen, 40
ID phosphoric acid, IL To-; potash,
LIB. If the bean straw is used for
feeding purposes or is returned to the
land as manure. the only plant food
removed from the soil is that taken
away by the beans themselves. 1t
has come to be the recognized practice
Of bean growers in western New York
to follow beans with wheat or rye
without blowing the land. This
practice can be adopted where the
beans have been kept thoroughly free
from weeds and grass, but if the bean
field has been neglected and allowed
to become overgrown with trash, it
becomes almost necessity to plow
the land before seeding with wheat.
Those who understand the princi-
pies of wheat culture know that wheat
does best on land in which the sub
surface soil has been compacted and
that they have best success where the
land has been plowed some little time
before drilling in the wheat. The
farmers throughout the middle west
who follow corn with wheat have
adopted the practice of simply harrow
in the land after the corn and then
drilling N their wheat. Better re-
suits are secured than by blowing the
land after the corn This of course,
takes for granted that the land has
been kept fairly free from weeds and
grass.
We know of one man who this year
plowed Immediately after removing
the cat crop and drilled in buckwheat.
The buckwheat is to be plowed under
directly before drilling in wheat.
This man will certainly be disappoint
ed as to the results; for the blowing
of the land. and the turning under OF
the. buckwheat just before drilling In
the wheat. will not prove satisfactory.
The land should have been plowed
directly after removing the oats and
then should have been given frequent
tillage with the harrow or cultivatOr
until time for wheat seeding. The old
practice Of allowing the land to lie
idle during the entire summer or
summer following" as it was called,
is very largely a thing of the past,
for it has oeen found that we can now
remove a crop, pillow the land, and
secure as good crop of wheat as we
would secure by leaving the land idle
during tbs entire summer.
The manure which has accumulated
around the barn cannot be used to
better advantage than as a top dress
ing for the wheat ground. 1t is Ear
better applied as a top dressing after
the land is plowed than applied before
blowing. The principle which under
lies the practice is that the soluble
plant food on which the wheat is to
feed in the fall should be near the
surface of the ground. This will
cause the wheat roots to grow near
the surface so that when heaving Of
the ground takes place, as it almost
always does in the early spring, the
wheat plants will rise and fall and
the roots will not be broken off.
In the spring the roots will go
deeply into the soil for their plant
food because they have removed from
near the surface the plant food which
was most soluble. Thus it will be
seen why in following beans with
wheat it is best not to plow the
ground, because without blowing W.
have the conditions almost ideal for
successful wheat growing. The
practice is not shabby" farming, but
it is farming accordine to scientific
principles even though the farmer him
self does not know the principles in
volved.