The Savannah morning news., 1902-08-18

Did you ever think what your soil
really is? What, in fact, is the nature
of the soils on your farm for there
are few farms on which the nature of
the soil is all the same? asks the
Practical Farmer. Hence there is
need for studying each character of
soil which is found on the farm sepa-
rately Experience may have shown
you that a certain field makes better
wheat, or corn or grass, than other
fields on the same farm. Did you ever
try to find out why this is so? There
is no study of more Importance to the
farmer than study of his soils. The
chemist may make an analysis of your
soil, and tell you what is in it. But
he cannot tell you why a soil which
mas In 1t large amounts of plant food
of all sorts, is still an unproductive
soil. But it is evident that there are
many such soils, waiting only for some
method by which this plant food can
be brought into state in which plants
can use it. 1t may be the hard me-
chanical condition of the soil which
prevents plants thriving. 1t may be
an excess of water that shuts out air
and prevents nitrification 1t NAV be
plants. But whatever it is, it is for
the man on the farm to find out, and
no one else can do it for him. If the
mechanical texture of the soil is all
right, 1t may be that some of the es-
sential elements of plant food are de-
nclent in amount or are in such a form
that they cannot dissolve in the soil
moisture so that plants can use them.
Then the question arises, shall we sup
ply this element artificially or shall we
make use of some means for rendering
the materials already in the soil avail
able. No man cultivating the soil has
a right to consider himself a good far
mer until he has made himself ac-
quainted with the soils on his farm
and their needs. The mere matter of
deficiency of available plant food NAV
be demonstrated by plat experiments
with the different fertilizing elements
or rather combinations of elements. fit
is only compact clayey nature that is
the difficulty, drainage and the accum-
ulation of Misunderstanding organic mat
ter VIII cure it, while on the other
mana, the same accumulation of hu-
mus Will tend to make a leachy soil
more retentive of moisture and plant
food Many soil which has an album
dance OF plant food in it, is unproduc-
tive solely because of a lack of this
humus, for humus or decayed organic
matter is fully as valuable, if not more
valuable, for its mechanical effect ON
the SOIL than for the amount of plant
food 1T may contain. Its mellowing eff
feet on a clay soil and its moisture
retaining nature on all soils. make if
the most important addition to any old
cultivated land. The man who thought
fertilizers alone are needed. and who
advised us to give humus a rest
Knew very little about soil physics and
had never studied the cotton fields of
the Southern uplands, where long.
clean culture has used up the humus
ana the soil is unproductive so that
men imagine it worn out The fact is.
as we have often said. that no soil
that was ever good can ever be worn
out 1t may be unproductive with the
management it has, but let it alone
and in the course of time nature. with
the broom sedge and the pine tree will
make new land of it, What nature
does through long years we can do in
short time if we study our soils and
treat them properly.