The Columbus journal., 1903-02-18

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Soil Humus.
+. II. Lewis: The most important
question the farmer has to deal with
to-day regarding the maintenance or
restoring fertility Of the soil II SOIL
Humus." At the annual meeting OF
the Experimental UniOn In 1900.
Prof. I. p. Roberts. Of Cornell Unt-
versity. stated that the soils Of our
continent contained sumcient plant
food for the production Of from 800
to 500 crops. yet today We ind our
farms already becoming less Droduc-
tive simply because this fertility II an
unavailable or locked-up condition, and
the successful farmer II the one that
is finding the key for working the
best combination. The time has been
when most every farmer who prided
himself on doing proper work piled
his manure In the yard at least once.
and often more. The more It heated
the better work he thought he was
doing. when In reality all the good he
did was to kin the weed seeds. and
it was . wonderfully expensive meth
Cd. Every day that his manure heap
steamed he was losing the very best
fertility It contained. and that WAS
only part Of the loss. for 1t has been
ascertained that the rotting Of the
vegetable matter In the soil II the
great secret Of unlocking the plant
food. and especially that which IL the
most dimcult to unlock, the mineral
plant food" 90 he not only lost fer
tility BY fermenting In the heap. but
also lost the power to unlock what
Is in the soil.
Increases Moisture. This IL not the
only advantage Of putting plenty Of
vegetable matter In our soils, n 1t
has wonderful effect upon the water
holding capacity Of our soils. A piece
Of land, part Of which had been
cropped for years. until 1t was about
exhausted Of its humus content, was
tested for moisture. Another part Of
the same soil which had only two
crops taken from It was sampled for
moisture. The atmospheric condi-
tions Of each was the same. yet that
which was rich In humus contained
~ quarts Of water per cubic foot
more than the other. These same
soils. when wet to the same extent
and exposed to the sun for ten hours.
the one rich in humus contained .
quart more moisture per cubic foot.
We see by this that the amount OF
humus In our soils plays . very i'm
portant part as to its Water-holdins
capacity. When We remember that
all plant food In the soil must become
soluble In water. and that such food
is taken into the plant only through
the moisture that Is In the soil, We
realize the importance Of anything In
our soils that will increase itS water
holding content.-Farmers'R Review.
Wheat W. Other Grains for Fattcnin0
Pigs.
At the Nebraska Experimental Sta
ton 48 pigs weighing about ITO
pounds each were divided into eight
lots, SIX in q lot. After . prelimin-
ary feeding of nine days. they were
put on their respective rations Octo-
Der q. 1901. During the experimental
period Of thirteen weeks following
this date, the food consumed In the
production Of one pound Of gain on
the different rations was as follows:
Lot I. 6.37 pounds OF whole dry
wheat.
Lot 2, SIS pounds of soaked wheat
Lot 3. $50 pounds Of ground wheat.
Lot. 4. 5.S6 pounds Of ground wheat
and corn, equal parts.
Lot S. 6.21 pounds Of ground wheat
and rye. equal parts.
Lot 6. 6.12 pounds Of ground wheat
and shorts, equal parts.
Lot Z, Cos pounds of ground corn.
Lot 8, GA pounds Of ground rye.
At the time this experiment was
conducted, wheat and corn were each
worth IS cents per bushel, rye so. and
wheat shorts SIS per ton. The cost
of grinding the wheat and rye was
eight cents per hundred and the corn
six cents. At these prices the net
profits were greatest on soaked wheat.
amounting In this case to $3.50 per
pig, as compared with $1.O7 on
ground wheat. In this experiment.
corn at IS cents per bushel gave q net
profit Of only 80 cents per pig. 1t
was therefore the most expensive
food used. The ground wheat pro-
duced 9 per cent larger gains than
the ground corn, pound for pound, and
the ground corn 2 per cent larger
gains than the ground rye.
Wheat kernels are SO small and
hard that many passed through the
animals undigested, and unless first
ground or soaked this grain is unsatis-
factory for feeding. OF the two meth
ods. soaking is more economical un-
less the grinding can be done for 2
cents per hundred.-E. A. Burnett
Nitrogen-cathering Bacteria.
Attention was called in my last re-
port to the importance Of nitrogen
in the nutrition of plants. and the
discovery of a new method Of cult
waiting the bacteria which gather nitro
gen in connection with leguminous
crops was announced. This method
has been perfected during the past
year. The reason for the failure Of
former work in this line, both In this
country and Europe. has been deter
mined. and a new. simple, cheap. and
thoroughly satisfactory method OF
growing and distributing the tubercle
bacteria for all the important legu-
minous crops has been perfected. The
nitrogen-gatheri1g power OF the bac-
terra grown by our new method Is at
least five times as great as the nitro
gen-gathering power Of the ordinary
thA m