Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1904-11-01
Manures and Soils.
FERTILITY REMOVED.

In reply to an inquiry in regard to th'
amount of plant food removed from th'
soil by ordinary crops of corn, whea
and potatoes and its value, the Practical
Farmer says ton of shelled corn, which
is nearly 80 bushels, takes from the sol
about SO pounds of nitrogen. IA pounds
of phosphOric acid and pounds of pot
ash. The prices of these fertilizers will
vary some in different localities, but the
above quantity will cost somewhere neal
$3.50 as a general average. A ton Of
winter wheat, 33 1-3 bushels, takes from
the soil about Al pounds of nitrogen, Is
pounds of phosporic acid and u of pot
ash. This amount of plant food bought
in bags will cost about $3.50. Three
tons of potatoes, 100 bushels, will re.
move from the soil about 13 pounds OF
nitrogen, of phosphOric acid and II Of
potash. The cost of this amount OF
plant food will be about So. Our friend
lives near a large city and probably is
figuring to sell what will bring him the
most net money in proportion to the
plant food taken out of the soil. Well
100 bushels of potatoes certainly ought
to bring you, on the average, as much as
$40 by the load, and they will take from
the soil about So. Twenty bushels OF
wheat, one year with another, will moi
bring quite half the money, and still they
will remove from the soil nearly S.
worth of plant food. The land that
would bring 100 bushels of merchantable
potatoes per acre, and 20 of wheat, might
produce in corn about SO bushels. Al
the present price of corn this would
bring about SlS, and you would have to
put over one-third of the money in fer.
tilizers to bring back with you in order
to make good the loss to your land
Now the amount of plant food named is
not all that is used in the growth of these
three staple crops, by any means. 1t is
simply about all the crops necessarily
remove from the farm, when they are
sold off. 1t takes fertility to grow the
corn stalks, wheat straw and potato tops.
If the manurial value of stalks and straw
is half wasted in one way or another,
and the potato tops are raked up and
burned, why then cropping and selling
off products will run land down still
faster than above figures indicate.
Again, if corn and potato stubble is left
bare over winter, in Ohio, more fertility
will leave the farm for good. And still
again, in selling off crops some vegetable
matter is being taken from the land,
which commercial fertilizers will not
bring back. Our friend also wants to
know how much good manure will be
required to make up the loss from re.
moving these crops. A ton of good,
mixed stable manure, from we'll fed ami
mails saved on cement floor, will have
plant food in it that would cost in fer
tilizers about 50, possibly little more.
1t will also have vegetable material that
will be of value. The ingredients IN
this manure will vary some, of course:
Analysis has sometimes shown a ton OF
it to contain as much as 10 pounds of
nitrogen, of phosphoric acid and II OF
potash. But if you buy ton of manure
n the city it will probably be some short
in nitrogen and considerably so in pot
ash. Nearly all the potash in animal
weddings and some of the nitrogen is in
the rrine. This is why the writer has
so persiStently urged the use of cement
floors in stables. Again, when pile of
manure heats so as to firefang nitrogen
is slowly leaving it and going into the
air, and rain falling on pile may leach
out part of its value. This is some
what mixed question at the best and
some may have to study closely before
fully understanding it. If you buy fer
tilizers to return to the land what crops
are taken off, so as to keep your land
completely up in fertility, you must add
some for teaching, etc. Then If the
stalks and straw are fed out and manure
saved with all possible care you must
add about one-quarter of the fertilizer it
took to grow these. Then catch crops
should be worked in to make up the loss
in vegetable material. 1t will be found
a difficult matter, usually, to grow or
binary farm crops, sell them off and re-
turn enough plant food in fertilizers to
really keep the land up, and still make
money. The wise way generally is to
get nitrogen from the air by growing
clover or COW peas, occasionally. and
then only have to buy what phosphoric
acid and potash may be needed to grow
the crops.-Mirror and Farmer.