The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-23
FARM,
Turning Under Vegetable Matter.
Green or Dry.

Turning Under Vegetable Matter.
Green or Dry.
It is no easy matter to turn under a
rank crop of most any kind of green
matter. Unless a proper two-horse
plow is used for the purpose and then
unless it be a crop something like
bush peas or vetch the turning under
of green vegetable matter will usual
~ be found a worrying piece of bus
mess" at best. Most intelligent farm
ers have ceased king the effort for
the very good reason that it is not de-
sirable thing to do even if the last
sprig of green matter could be turned
under the soil as if it We're so much
sawdust There is nothing whatever
gained by turning under the 10 per
cent. or more of the water that this
green stuff is composed Of. 1t in no
way adds to the richness Of the soil
and this green matter does cause
sourness of soil for a season or two
that can only be rectified by the use
of lime or by a seasons clean falloW
Where a farmer undertakes to bring
his soil up to a higher condition of
fertility by vegetable manuring his
chief concern is to get his land cover
ed with rank growth of some crop that
is suited to the purpose. 1t may be
ragweed or vetch or bur or crimson
clover or velvet beans or Whippo-
will or Wonderful peas. 1t should be
one or the other of these because they
are the best crops by all odds for veg
eta BILE manuring. There are few others
worth considering in this connection.
To use either of the clovers for en-
riching the soil it is necessary for the
crop to be started in the fall. not later
than October and to get the full ben
eft of the crop must occupy the SOIL
far into the following spring. Neither
are likely to attain their complete
growth before the middle of May and
it will then require another month or
two for this crop to die down and be
in condition to be turned under the
soil With a good one-horse turn pillow.
1t matters not how late the turning
under is deferred there will be no real
loss of the manurial quality of the
crop. The only loss will be of the wa
ter it contained. The advantage of a
cover crop in the winter consists
chiefly in the fact that such a crop
takes up and holds any valuable ele-
ments that become soluble during the
winter and thus prevents it from be-
ing leached out into the subsoil and
wasted. This crop as it becomes more
dense in the spring shades the soil
and the shade develops the formation
of nitrates.
ANY soil that has been allowed to
shaded it completely for several
months will be found to have increased
its fertility wonderfully and be in con-
dition to make a maximum crop OF
most anything that might be planted
on it,
In using velvet beans or peas or
ragweed. if the soil can be completely
shaded by either of these crops by
the middle of June and the crop is
allowed to die naturally on the SOIL,
the land will have had the good effects
of the shading through the whole sea-
son of hot weather and consequently
will be very rich in nitrates when the
dead crop will have finally been turn
ed under.
The soil gets more benefit from the
smaller quantity of dried vegetable
nSllter that is finally given to 1t
than if would from the denser crop of
green matter which is four-tifths wa
ter and which sours the soil generally
to an injurious extent for season
or more. The small farmer with his
one-horse turn plow need not worry
therefore because he is not able to
turn under his rank green crop that
he has grown specially as fertilizer.
1t is better that it should not be done
even II it could be done as easily as
failing off a log