Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1902-09-25
WEEDS ARE INDISPENSABLE

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"The manner in which weeds are
known to improve soil forms a remark
able scientific discovery. Their roots
extend into the sitter and more com.
pact subsoil, where no ordinary plant
can reach, and after loosening and open
ing 1t up so that air and water can have
action upon it, suck up from below
great quantities of potash salts and
phosphoric acid. When these weeds are
plowed under or die, these salts and
acids are left near the surface, where
they can be utilized by the cereals and
root crops which live upon them. For
instance, wheat and potatoes flourish
wen where these weeds have gone be-
fore and done the work of getting the
necessary food for them from the sub
soil and the air
Much land Is of no value until these
weeds come in and make 1t so. This Is
particularly true of sandy soils and re-
claimed marsh lands, which are def
cient in potash, thing necessary in
all farming land. On these the deeper
rooted legumes, such as gorse broom,
alfalfa, lupines, sulla and the perennial
beans are Of great value Their roots
not only reach down very deep and
bring up potash from the subsoil in the
manner described, but their leaves take
great quantities of nitrogen from the
air. Now, when soil is rich in pot
ASH and nitrogen it is good soil, and as
these plants die and leave their gath
cred potash and nitrogen on the surface
the sandy and marshy soils become
good land. All the farmer has to do is
plow these rotting weeds under and he
has good land on which he can raise
cereals, root crops and tobacco-that
hardest and most wearing plant upon
soil.
The government has induced farm
ers to try Florida beggar weed. One
eXperimenter reported that by planting
1t in his field and blowing under the an
nual crops for two successive years
the soil had been completely changed
In texture and color. Another farm |
er discovered that a crop of beggar
weed turned under will, when decom- |
posed, retain near the surface in ready |
reach Of the roots of succeeding crops |
not only all the nitrogen that it took
out of the atmosphere, but also what
ever fertilizers were subsequently ap-
Piled. third reported that all his
fields produced more luxurious crops
after having been given over one sea-
son to rank growth of this weed.
10 find out how much chemical val
lie this weed really takes from the air
and the subsoil, the government plant
ed a sandy field (bare of any of the
on which ordinary cereals and
vegetables thrive) with beggar weed,
and when the crop was at it's height
harvested it, root and ALL The crop
was then reduced to ashes and the re-
suit analysed. 1t was found that every
ton of beggar weed ashes contained sos
pounds of lime, $50 pounds of phos-
phoric acid and 4S2 pounds Of potash.
Twenty or twenty-five tons of beggar
weed hay were required to make one
ION or ashes, but every acre yielded four
tons OF beggar weed. 1t was figured
)ut that four-ton yield per acre,
which Is an average, one acre of beg
gar weed would yield $50 pounds of nj
-rogen, worth Is cents pound, or
S22.5o worth of nitrogen and potash
md phosphoric acid worth 1925, max
ng total of $22.75 worth Of fertiliz-
ng chemicals taken from an acre of
,0il worth nothing ot oil 7 ouiS
Star.