The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-12-29


but can only be exhausted, so TO speak
can easily be brought up. but land that
was poor in the beginning cannot be
made permanently rich. | have frequent
" given II as my belief that land that
was originally fertile, and Is of a good
mechanical texture can never be really
worn out, though by bad farming it
may be brought into a very unproductiVe
condition while still having IN it an
abundance of plant food whicn It's condi
tlon renders unavailable. The scientists
of the Department Of Agriculture who
have been studying soils announce as one
of their discoveries that all cultiyablt
soils have IN them about the same aver
age amount of soluble plant food, and
that the only difference IN their produC-
tiveness is N their mechanical condition
and the readiness which they supply
water for the solution OF the plant iocd.
If this IS true then the fact that &c
chemist finds more nitrogen or phosphoric
acid or potash IN one soil than in another
has nothing whatever to do with the
needs of that soil as to additional plant
food to be supplied in fertilizers. II the
amount OF soluble plant food n all soils
is the same then all soils need the same
treatment as to allitional plant food to
be supplied in fertilizers. The soil that
was originally fertile soil have been cult
waited and crops taken off from it has
completely oXidized this humus and U7et
it up, and the mechanical condition OF
, the soil is very different. IS clayey mat
ter has run together and the air is shut
out. 1t dries out more rapidly and fails
to furnish water to the roots and TO
dissolve plant food, and though a labora-
tory experiment may show thai it still
| ,foIr + rO1r, y ~F6s
plant food, the water is not present for
it's solution by reason of she loss of hu-
mus and absorbs and retains less heat,
and heat Is essential to the growth Of
! plants.
| Thus, while chemical analysis may show
/ that it has an abundance of plant food,
4 the food is locked up and plants Cannoot
get at 1t. This is just the condition Ct
! la ger areas in the South. But to say
no soil originally poor or unproductive
cannot be made permanently fertile ard
productive is hardly true There are
thousands of acres IN the South which,
WREN first cleared, were in an unproduc-
| tive condition, by reason OF o lack OF hui
mus. The red clay uplapds of the South
! have naturally less humus than similar
lands in the North, for in open wood
lands TIE leaves are blown aWav to the
in the North they are packed down by
snow and held to rot where they fell,
and thus larger amount Of humus Or
vegetable decay is found there But
when these are stored with humus making
matter they rapidly increase in produc-
t1veness because of their improved me-
chantcal condition. | once remarked to
a friend, good farmer IN an improving
section that | thought a certain field Of
! corn was poor tor q piece of new ground
Newly cleared land here he said, is
the poorest land we have, and We never
expect it to do well till we have handled
it a few years and got some clover or
peas on it,
L have never forgotten the remark,
though 1t was many years ago, and It
set me TO thinking about the matter,
and | became convinced that SO far rs
the clay uplands of the South are con
cerned he was right, and that the first
step in their development and permanent
prouctiveness must be the getting into
them of the humus that improves their
warmth.
It is true that there are in tie South
and III all other sections OF the country
lands that were originally poor which
cannot be made permanently fertile, but
must be continually aided by manure or
fertilizers. These are the sandy, barren
soils where there was originally but 4
small store of plant fcod and where the
plant food added in fertilizers is rapid 7
Cxldlzed and leached down, because of tie
loose mechanical condition of the san
and the absence Of food retaining clay.
On such Lands fertilizers act quickly On
! the crops and their warmth makes them
available for early garden crops, but the
plant food supplied is soon lost ana must
be continually renewed. But il does noI
fellow that a sandy soil that was or.gi-
nally poor cannot be made permanently
fertile if Just below the sandy surface
there is a retentve. clay subsol that can
be reached by the piow to ameliorate
the surface, or even when out Of reach
OF the plow 10 serve as an arresting force
to retain moisture and plant food. Now,
having land that Is called worn out
oil our red clay and the soil scientists
tell us that it shows just much SOlub e
plant food in it as land right alongside
that mas been we'll worked and We
treated, and IS productive, while 10 treat
ment a present seems TO avail to make
it produce good crops, we want to fiT1
the reason You viii see on a very cas-
ual examination that the productive land
Of the same natural character Is darfe1
in color, is more mellow and less incHned
TO bake and dry out.
In a dry time you can stir 70 moisture
/ in it with the toe of your shoe, wflsf
on your vorn-out land you can hardly
stir it at all when dry. What makes the
difference in these two fields? Sly 2
the difference in humus or vegetable &c
cay This has all been burnt out oi TIC
WORKOUT land, and while a laboratory
solution Of the two soils viii show tie
same average amount Of soluble pan
! food. the worn-out land has not moisture
enough to mae the solution naturally, en-
hence cannot deliver food to the plan
roots The very first thing then to p'
sdone in its Improvement Is to get th'