St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1901-12-07
FARMER AND PLANTER.
LEGUME SOIL 1MpRovERs.
The Farmer who Habitunlly Grows
Leguminous Crops VIII Not
Have . Run-Down Farm

where the principal CROP is grain. hay
or fiber, which il sold away from the
farm, the land. after few years, Ct
maybe a generation, fails to produce
as good crops az formerly. Eventually
it becomes improbable to grow
these crops. The farmers become i'm
poverished. Country homes lack com
fort and all the miseries Of decay
ing industry are felt. In regions
where the growth Of the soil is fed
on the farm to dairy or other ami
mails, the wealth and average comfort
Of the farmer is greater than in
grain or fiber growing districts, be
cause where animals and their prod
ucts alone are sold of the farm
comparatively little soil fertility is
taken away, and this is. MS rule,
more than made good by the food
stuffs bought for feeding.
The fertility Of even the strongest
soil is not inexhaustible. It is similar
to a bank account, and, like that,
sooner or later exhausted, when the
account shows all outgo ard no in
come.
The essential elements OF plant food
are only three nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash. The first is the enc
of most importance, the most expen-
siye to buy and most difficult to hold.
No soils contain more than a very lit
tie of this substance. It is usually
the first element Of plant food to be-
come exhausted. Yet every acre Ct
land upon the earth's surface has
resting upon it no less than $4,000
tons of nitrogen. Four-fifths OF the
air we breathe is nitrogen. Unfortu-
nately no agricultural plant or ami
NAL is able to feed directly upon the
store of nitrogen in the air. Legu-
minous plants are able to feed upon at
mospheric nitrogen Indirectly through
microscopic bacteria, which grow up
on and eat the roots Of this class OF
plants. These bacteria do not grow
upon tho roots Of non-leguminous
plants. For example, one ton of tim
othy hay takes from the soil the fol-
lowing plant food. Nitrogen 25.2
pounds, phosphoric acid 1915 pounds,
potash Is pounds. One ton, or 80
bushels Of wheat (grain) takes from
the soil: Nitrogen 56.2 pounds, phos-
phoric acid IA pounds, potash 1872
pounds. One ton of red clover hsy
takes from the air: Nitrogen IA
POUNDS, and from the soil, phosphoric
acid 7.6 pounds, potash A pounds. One
ton Of cowpea hay takes from tho air:
Nitrogen 80 pounds, and from the soil,
prosphoric acid 1914 pounds, potash
1914 pounds. IF we grow timothy hay
and feed it to stock on the farm and
carefully return the manure to the
meadow, we return from one-half to
four-ifths OF the plant food taken
up in the crop; but if the crop is sold
away, the nitrogen in the soil is soon
exhausted and timothy dies out. II
we grow clover instead Of timothy,
we take only phosphorjc acid and
potash from the soil. IL we feed the
clover and return the manure, we inn
prove the soil instead Of impoverish-
ing it. This is why legumines are
called soil improvers. But without q
yearly dressing Of phosphate and pot
ash, our clover itself will in the course
Of few years run out, in spite of
the stable manure we give II. Ugly
and worthless weeds of the dock and
pigweed kinds come in. This presence
Of these weeds shows that the soil
contains plenty Of nitrogen, but lacks
phosphoric acid and potash. Stable
manure contains very little Of these
latter substances. It's value depends
almost wholly upon it's nitrogen and
the vegetable matter which, by de-
cay In the soil, forms humus.
Tho farmer who grows only legu-
mines that is, peas, beans, cowpeas,
clovers, vetch, alfalfa, etc.-can grow
these crops indefinitely and sell them,
or feed them, as he finds it most
profitable to do, will never exhaust his
farm, provided he returns each year
potash and phosphoric acid equal to
that sent away in the crop. These
substances are cheap, costing
about four cents per pound in form
of muriate Of potash and superphos-
phate. Nitrogen costs about sixteen
cents per pound in nitrate Of soda.
At the present prices of staple crops,
no farmer can afford to buy nitrogen