The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-08
WEEDS 1NDrsPENsABLE.
Their Great Service in Fructifying
 Barren Soil.

Ainslie's Magazine.
 The manner in which weeds are known to improve poor soil forms a remarkable scientific discovery. Their roots extend into the stiffer and more compact sub soil. where no ordinary plant can reach. and after loosening and opening it up so the air and water can have action upon it. suck up from below great quan- titles of potash salts and phosphoric acid. When those weeds are plowed under C. die these salts and acids are left rear the surface. where they can be utilized by the cereals and root crops which live upon them. For instance. wheat and potato flourish well where these weeds have gone before and done the work Of getting the necessary food for them from the subsoil 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 deficient in potash, thing necessary in all farm ing land. On these the deeper rooted legumes, such as gorse, broom alfalfa, are of great value. Their roots not only | reach down very deep and bring up pot | ash from the snbsoli In the manner de- | scribed, but their leaves take great quan- l titles of nitrogen from the air. Now. | when a soil is rich in potash and nitro | gen 1t is good soil, and as these plants
 die and leave their gathered potash and
 nitrogen on the surface. the sandy and | marshy soils become good land. All the
 farmer has to do is blow these rotting | weeds under and he naS lana on Whicn
 ho can raise cereals. root crops and to- bacco-that hardest. most wearing plant upon soil
 | '"The government has induced farmers Il to try the Florida beggar weed One ex- l perimenter reported that by planting it
 In his field and blowing under the annual | erops for two successive .'cars the soil
 had been completely changed in texture | and color. Another farmor discovered that a crop of beggar weed turned under | will. when decompossd, retain near the II surface in ready reach of the roots of | exceeding crops not only all the nitro gen that 1t took out of the atmosphere. but also whatever fertilizers were snb-
 sequently applied X third reported that crops after having been given over one season to rank growth of this weed. ''ro find ntt how much chemical value this weed really takes from the air and the suhsol. the government planted a sandy field tba @ of any of the qualities tables can thrive) with beggar weed, and il wher the crop Was at it's height harvest ed it root and Al The crop was then
 reduced to ashes and the result ana lyzed. It was found that every ton of
 beggar weed ashes contained JOS pounds } of lime. go pounds of phosphoric acid
 and iS2 pounds of potash. Twenty to twenty-five tons of beggar weed hay were
 required to make one ton of ashes. but
 every acre iyielded four tons of beggar weed. It was figured out that at a four | ton yield per acre, which is an average,
 one arre of beggar weed would yield lio
 pounds of nitrogen. worth h cents a
 pound or $2.50 worth of nitrogen, and potash and phosphorlc acid worth $5 2e } making d total of $27.75 worth of fertiliz- ing chemicals taken from an acre of soil
 worth nothing at all