The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-10-28
ART" IN FARMING
How to Retain the Wealth of the
Land on the Farm-Crops
That Take It Away.
The Important Fertilizing Elements
and How They Are
Wasted.

Buudin0. Washi"atos. .
Washington, Oct. 2S.-One needs but to
look over the work Of some of the bureaus
of the department Of agriculture to real
lie that this country Is squandering much
of its natural resources, and that tbs
struggle for life Of future generations will,
except as 1t IS offset by compromising i'm.
provements in other lines, be much Sc
verer than that of the present. Zone of
the first things which a pioneer does"
said the secretary of agriculture to-day.
lis to grow crops which require little
capital like wheat, oats, fax, corn, bar
ley, but which exhaust the soil. Every.
bushel of grain which he sells means to
transfer from his farm so much Of its
plant food, and our experts have figured
to a nicely how much OF the mineral ele-
ments Of the soil go out in each bushel
Of the various grains. The pioneer usu-
ally lacks the means to follow such sys-
tenn of agriculture as will maintain the
fertility Of his farm. In fact, American
wheat could not be sold to-day in the
markets Of the world If it were necessary
to buy commercial fertilizers. and the
home price would be vastly Increased. We
are now drawing all the time upon Ma
lures Accommodations of thee past > Is
There are three important mineral fer
tilizing elements. The first Of these is
potash. 1t Is generally found In the SOIL
but there is only one place in the world
that has been discovered where you can
dig it up, and that is in Germany. An
other Of ths&simportant fertilizing ele-
ments, phosphoric acid, is found much
more plentifully. Large deposits have
been discovered In Florida and more re-
Gently in Kentucky; these beds are the
graveyards of marine creatures of a pre-
vious period. The third important fer
tilizer may be called mineral, because 1t
| {S }v no ok orb "a
from the atmosphere, and that Is the nj
| trogenous element. These three things
are taken up out of the soil very rapidly
by wheat or other exhausting crops. Flax
Is very severe on the soil, and so is to-
bacco or any other broad-leafed crop.
There are systems of agriculture pur-
sued in the older sections Of the northwest
which keep up the fertility of the soil
pretty we'll without resorting to CONNER
cial fertilizers. These farms sell the re-
suits of skill. They sell butter, for ex-
ample, which, SO far as the land is con-
cerned, is the sale Of little more than
the wind and water Of the atmosphere OF
that farm. When they sell beet sugar
they sell only the wind and water If they
sell fat pork they sell very little that ex-
hausts the SOIL In beef and mutton. to
be sure they sell something that exhausts
the soil, but infinitely less than the grains,
because so large percentage OF what the
animals eat goes directly back to the land
in fertilizing elements. Rotating crops
helps the land by distributing the demands
upon 1t.
1T would be better II we never had
exported a bushel of grain. We are sell
ing just so much Of the countrys wealth
inherited from the long past whenever we
ship across the ocean our cereals. The
situation is precisely the same as with
EIngland's export of coal. Upon that ar
| ticle much of her Industrial supremacy
depends, and yet for years she has been
sending it away. European lands show
in their exhaustion what we will ultimate
| ly come to here. Many Of the best farms
! in Europe retain their fertility only by
securing the globe for fertilizers. The
battlehelds, Of Europe have, been dug up
for bones. The last buffalo, deer and elk
bone that could be, gathered up has been
shipped there. '--
There is, of course, some soil forma t1or
through the disintegration of the rocks
by frosts; the trees, where the leaves are
! left to rot on the ground. bring soil ele-
ments from great depth, and 50 act a:
a nourishing force. For that reason we
have established a bureau of forestry AND
are doing all we can for the encourage
ment Of tree-growing.
| 1.-The sewage system of our cities Is I'M
| doubtedly a great waste OF organic mat
ter which should go to the soil; but Al
present it is not economically feasible tc
do anything else In this new country. lr
Edinburgh, which stands on hill, the
sewage is turned into a valley, which Is
made so rich that it's grass can be GU
oftener than once month through mos
of the year. In some parts OF England
they pump the sewage on to sandy lan1
and thereby grow very large crops. Blu
we have hardly reached the stage where
this can be proftably done here"