Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-06-07
Clover and Chemicals.

Meeting and conversing with a large
number of farmers on different farm top
les and soil fertility, their invariable re-
ply is, 1--WE are building up our lands
with clover" when the fact is, they are
wearing their lands out by the system
they are following (which said'fact will
show. Leguminous plants, like clover,
draw atmospheric nitrogen, but the Soii
must furnish the potash and phosphoric
acid. and for the want of these minerals
present in the soil, leguminous plants
will not grow. Soils become sometimes
what is termed s'clover-sick," for the
want of these chemical plant foods.
Now let us get right down to business
on this question; we will have no guess
work, but actual facts. Thanks to chem
istry, which informs us that when you
sell one ton of clover hay from your
farm. or feed it out and don't return the
manure and liquid weddings to the land
on which it was grown, you have sold Al
pounds of nitrogen, Spounds OF phos-
phoric acid and "A pounds of potash equal
to ST.26 worth of commercial fertillzers
at market prices. The nitrogen has been
mostly gathered from the air and mas
cost you nothing, but your soil is Just
that much poorer in fertility from the
removal of the chemical constituents,
potash and phosphoric acid. But some
saw, 1--WE are rotating our crops" What
GOOD does that do as far as furnishing
plant food, when every crop that we
grow requires potash and phosphoric
acid. Let us see how much fertility we
could add To this soil by returning the
manure. Stable manure that has been
properly cared for contains about three
times as much nitrogen as it does phos-
phoric acid, and about twice as much OF
that as it does potash. Stable manure is
deficient in the very elements for the
production of clover hay and to assist
with nitrogen in renovating wornout
soils. There is such vast difference in
stable manure. The difference is what
oupht TO be the value of the manure;
there are so many things that affect this
value in the way of drainage, teaching
and fermentation, that NO one can ever
tell lust what he puts on his lands in
the form of stable manure. In turning
under a clover sod, where chemical
fertilizers have been literally used to
produce a luxuriant growth of grass and
roots. we obtain as much organic matter
as there is in 80 tons of ordinary stable
manure, and nitrogen sufficient to pro.
duce 80 bushels of corn per acre, ana
corn is a fine crop to grow on clover
sod. 1t requires 81 pounds of phosphor-
ic acid and so pounds of potash to pro-
duce 60 bushels of corn. This must DC
supplied to make an equilibrium OF plant
food or balance the nitrogen supplied oy
the clover. This could be furnished by
using $50 pounds muriate of potash and
200 pounds of acid phosphate per acre.
Farmers inform me that the average
WELD of clover hay in Missouri is about
one to one and half tons per acre; this
| is no Weld and is sufficient evidence that
your soil is starving for the want OF the
chemical constituents, and instead oil
building up your lands you are gradually
wearing out your lands by growing clover
and ueglecting to furnish your soils with
the needed chemicals. A proper bal
ance ration or equilibrium of plant food
present in the soil is the basic principle
of rational Plant feeding. | find during
nv travels over the state, in some sec
tions. progressive farmers who have
made a study of plant feeding to some
Iextent are following this system of usins
the chemical fertilizers in connection
with the cowpeas and in seeding dowI
with clover. Thus they get better
lea,ch and more luxuriant growth o
grass and therefore more nitrogen t.
aid in following out system OF crol
rotation with clover and chemicals, as
basis of soil fertility.-C. w. Morrill, IL
Journal of Agriculture.