The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-12
Humus In Connection With Fertil-
iZers.

IZerS.
High grade fertilizers alone will not
permanently enrich the soil In a few
years the humus will be exhausted
leaving the soil dead and compact
says the Southern Planter. Soils that
are deficient in humus will show the eff
fects of drought much more seriously
than those that have been properly
supplied.
If commercial fertilizers alone be
used, there will be but little or no
humus and carbolic acid gas produced,
and unless these elements are present
An proper quantities, there can be 40
profitable farming.
After a green crop has been turned
down, the oxygen of the air or of rain
water combined with the car bon of
the decaying vegetable matter, and
forms carbonic acid gas; humus, in the
meantime, being also produced. Said
gas is a powerful solvent and attacks
certain rebellious elements in the soil,
reducing them to plant food hence
hUmus and carbonic acid gas are es-
sontial to successful farming, and pro-
per means should be devised to produce
them.
Any green crop turned down at ma
turity will produce humus and car
bonic gas, but q legume crop, such as
clover or COW peas, is preferable. for,
in addition to the humus and carbonic
acid gas, a bountiful supply of nitro
gen will be drawn from the air. A
good crop of cowpeas will easily draw
from the air over 100 pounds of nit
rogen per acre, worth Is cents per
pound.
The New Jersey Experiment Station
claims that an acre of crimson clover
will mature $50 worth of nitrogen. Red
clover will do better still We will,
however, be moderate and put the val
ue of nitrogen gathered by an acre of
cow-peas or clover at $15 When either
crop is turned down, nitrogen to said
value is returned to the soil for the
benefit of the next crop. Here, then, is
an advantage of at least $15 per acre
in favor of employing legume crops for
improvement purposes, in lieu of other
crops, such as rye, oats, etc, that do
not draw nitrogen from the air.
The ranker the growth the greater
will be the quantity of nitrogen drawn
from the air; therefore, it will usually
pay we'll to fertilize literally
The following fertilizer may be en-
ployed per acre for clover or cow-peas:
Acid phosphate, $50 to 500 pounds;
kainit, 300 to 600 pounds. Broadcast
and pillow in shallow preferably a few
weeks before seeding. From rs to $50
pounds of muriate of potash may be
used in lieu of the kainit.
For cow-peas, the fertilizer may be
applied in the drills and properly
mixed with the soil. thus about doub-
ling the beneficial results usually de-
rived from broadcasting.
l will here emphasize the fact that if
commercial fertilizers be applied to
soils for a number of years. say five
to ten, no humus in the meantime being
produced, the soil will continue to grow
poorer and poorer, however large the
applications may be. In proof of this
statement l herewith submit the fol-
lowing:
The New York Experiment Station
has made a ten-year experiment along
this line. Three plots, equal in every
way, and lying adjacent, We're used
The yield of each. without fertilizer,
was about u bushels of wheat per acre
"On No. l, 500 pounds of high grade
fertilizer were used every year On
No. ,, nothing was used. This plot
was plowed and narrowed repeatedly
from the time of reaping to the time
of sowing in the fail. on No. 8. four
tons of good stable manure were used
every year. The result was that No
2. with no help, continued to increase
in yield from u to 80 bushels per
acre. and made more wheat in the ten
years than either No. or No. g. No
/. with commercial fertilizers. rapidly
increased for a few years and then
rapidly decreased, coming out third in
the average"
From the foregoing. II would seem
that with deep and frequent cultiva-