The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-10-05
FARM,
The Great Subject of Manures.

A farmer needs to know all he Jos
sibly can about manures. This know
ledge is especially important in the
older sections of the country where
the lands have been long cultivated
and now lack that essential humus
that made them fertile.
A farmer need not know very much
of chemistry to enable him to under
stand pretty much all that is neces-
sary to know of manures to make a
success of farming. Though it may
not be absolutely essential it is well
to know as much as possible about
nitrogen and potash and PHOSPHORUS
Cor phosphoric acid. about humus and
its relation to fertility: about lime
and gypsum Cor land-plasters it is
more commonly called. He can go a
little further and acquire some know
ledge about carbon, hydrogen; oxygen,
the atmospheric elements of plants.
But after all there is very little of
chemistry that the energetic, common
sense farmer need to know to make
him successful He needs to know
more about stable manure, cotton
bSSuSs COllOH SGeQ iledlt dGlu pllOS-
phate, bone meal, kainit, nitrate of
soda and a few other things If like
character that enter into practical
farming. To know how to make use
of these various materials on his diff
ferent fields Will be about all that
he will find needful a practical
farmer. We cannot farm to mucn ad-
vantage on our worn soils now with
out the use of manures, and the bet
Ter know how fh-aTD the
better will be the success in farming,
whether clean,- culture or pastoral
Humus the Real Base of Fertility.
In starting out to restore worn soils
to a fertile condition we must recog-
nize the manurial quality of humus. 1t
is something we cannot buy, as we do
nitrogen, potash, PHOSPHORUS and lime,
but il must be grown on the land. The
only manurial substance that affords
any appreciate amount of humus is
stable manure but there are not many
farmers that can apply it freely enough
to make it act the part of the humus
provider. 1t would require a wagon
load to every square rod of land to get
any appreciate effects. as humus from
the best stable manure.
So il has been well understood from
the first that humus can only be eco
nomically provided by growing it on
the land using such crops as have been
found best adapted to the purpose. The
legumnous family of plants that in
clude the clovers, peas and beans. fur
nish the best humus providers. There
are some grasses, however, that by the
annual decay of their roots supply some
humus. while yielding pasturage. In the
course of eight or ten years Bermuda
grass will restore a very large amount
of humus to the soil on which it grows
if the grass is fertilized4 now and then
as it should be with mineral fertilizers,
which are comparatively inexpensive.
There are four plants specially adapted
TO Southern use for supplying humus-
bur clover" crimson clover" Held
peas" and velvet beans" Two of these
can be sown in the fall and two in the
spring and summer. If one chooses to
DO it two humus crops could be given
to a field inside of ten months, or
even in a shorter time by following a
crop of peas planted the first of August
with a crop of bur or crimson clover
sown the last of October, just after
turning under the pea vines. 1t is prac-
ticable to give one humus crop to near
ly every field OH the farm every year.
OF course, it can be done where corn
is the crop grown. Where cotton is
the crop it is practicable to sow Grim
son or bur clover at the laying by of
the cotton. 1t is not bad plan, too,
to have the cotton rows five feet apart,
so that a crop of peas can be started
between when the cotton is laid by in
July or August. Some farmers have
practiced this to advantage.
Until we recognize the Importance of
hunus as a means of fertility we cam
not do very much in restoring our worn
lands or make the use of commercial
fertilizers pay as 1t should pay. Humus
or decayed vegetable matter is the
foundation of fertility.