Dakota farmers' leader. (Canton, S.D.) 1890-19??, 1903-03-06
soil CULTURE BY JACOB HOTTER
An Excellent Paper Read at the
County Farmers Institute
Last Week.

County Farmers Institute
Last Week.
Holter's Paper on Soil Cultur
Created q Sharp and
n Lively Debate.
While it may be said to be genera
method in the work of all soil.cul tpr'
the application of this method in var
ious localities. and under various con
ditions is 80 different that no common
rule can be given.
When I came to Lincoln county, 8;
years ago. I brought with me the in
bred notion, that the application o
barnyard manure to cropped soil, wa
an essential necessity to maintain it,
fertility and its cropping capacity
Accordingly planned so as to have u
hand liberal supply of barnyard ma
nure, and as I thought had wore th'
newness out of piece of ground ap
piled a coating of manure 30 as to bt
able to make rotation in about 5 or
years. Keeping up this method l soor
found that got my ground into such &
shape that it would yield, a poorer and
poorer quality of grain with each sue
ceeding season. The oats in particuls,
took on shape that amounted to a
real nuisance. They would start up in
vigorous growth and stool ont with
broad, luxurious leaves that would
make a COW laugh, but Lo!-They
would go down on the ground fiat, even
before the heads would appear.
Under these circumstances l could
not help but ponder and look around
and I noticed that men who spread ouI
no manure raised a better crop Of small
grain than did; in fact some of them
told me that the manure spoiled my
ground, but 90 rooted was l in my in
herited manure idea. that I was very
loath to give it up, especially as every
treatise I would read in agricultural
journals on this subject would uphold
my notion. 1t was true raised heavy
crops of corn of an excellent quality,
but at last concluded that this would
not repay me for what suffered
on the small grain, and I gave up my
manure hobby.
Now, some will perhaps insist that
spread it on too thick, but this can not
be said to be the case, for if manure
should be spread at all, I spread it ont
as thin as could be consistent with any
thing like dressing, but as Istated, /
gave it up, and since then the quality
of my small grain has gradually i'm
proved though can not say the same
of the corn
From this and other observations. I
am led to believe that the subsoil of our
ground, here in Lincoln county, laying
Immediately under the surface soil. and
consisting, as it does, of a mottled mix
ture of clay interspersed with rich lime.
matter, is in itself very good fertili-
zer. also think we find further proof
of this when we consider the large
amount of dust and mellow soil that is
blown away and washed away from
our cultivated fields year by year; yet
the ground does not diminish in pro-
How much this loss from
wind and water amounts to in q certain
given time is hard to determine. but !
am quite certain that in some places i,
to all of the depth Of the first
plowing and in certain places more,
such places will yield a
good crop.
As this mottled strata of subsoil ia up
to 20 feet deep here in Lincoln County
it would seem a. the fertility of our
soil is practically inexhaustible. But
if anyone would try to give the crop.
ping capacity of his soil an impetus by
up large quantity of this SUBJ
soil at once he would make a mistake,
for this stuff will yield up its plant
food tardily and gradually as it is OK.
posed to the work Of the atmosphere
and the sun. There are however places
where the subsoil strata consists of
sandy gravel, and such places will be
improved by judicious ap.
plication of manure. but those places
are comparatively few and of limited
extent here in Lincoln county.
The great battle, iu the problem of
soil culture, is the battle of the weeds.
There exists an inherited notion, and it
is upheld by agricultural journals too,
that the farmer may clean his lands of
weeds by a frequent return to a hoed
crop.
This notion does not hold good in
this locality; on the contrary, q hoed
crop may be the means of giving the
weeds glorious start, even in spite of
very careful cultivation. The trouble
is that the weed is cultivated with the
other crop and the vital power of some
Of our larger weeds is such that one
fibre of branch on the root is all that
ls sufficient to keep it alive and
enable it to make a new start and ma
ture an enormous amount of seeds
is this case with the sunfiow.
er, the rag weed, the wild hemp, and
The sand burrs. Then again we have
smaller weeds, such as the pigeon
grass and the buckwheat, which are
able to start up and mature q crop of
,eed after the cultiva;or Is laid by.
In my experience the most successful
Hay of cleaning Our cultivated grOnnd