The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-17


engaged in making a living from the
tefops, than there is for the man who looks
upon all such study as useless, and all of
whose farming is by rule of thumb"
Get wisdom and with all thy getting
get understanding" A man may learn
mechanically how to do things ON a farm.
but he will never be real farmer until
he rises to the comprehension of the i'm
portance of understanding his profession
FROM the bottom up.
COST OF LEGUMINOUS NITROGEN.
Our good friend, DR.. Chamberlain, OF
the Ohio Farmer, says that he paid this
spring $50 for clover seed and $7 tor
commercial fertilizers. He thinks that
the clover will trap some nitrogen from
the air. but it will get more from the
soil, and will get all OF its phosphoric acid
and potash from the soil. He adds that
one OF his correspondents implies that all
+,,a mapurial content of alfalfa is clear
gain to the farm, whereas about nine
tenths of it came from the soil and If re-
turned to the soil is simply returned to
it. Glover and alfalfa ,and cow pea ad-
vocates often forget this and forget also
the considerable cost of the seed OF all
the nitrogen-gathering plants. SO tar as
the Editor of The Practical Farmer Is
concerned-and he may well be classed as
one of the Cow pea advocates he has
never failed to call attention OF farmers
to the fact that while legumes will get
their nitrogen from the air, they are the
ereediest consumers of phosphoric acid,
potash and Eme-and that they do not get
these things from the air. But the point
in DR.. Chamberlain argument IS the cost
of the nitrogen we get through the aid OF
the legume crops. We have insisted that
that we get it free of cost It is true
that the legumes will get some nitrogen
from the SOIL but that hey get more from
the soil than from the air is not the case,
unless on soil very rich in nitrates. in
which case they make less effort, or have
less aid in getting the aerial nitrogen, Tor
in a soil Astounding in organic nitrogen
there is apt to be an acidity harmful to
tine growth of the nitrogen-fixing bactria.
But on a soil where clover trives well
we feel sure that the plants will get more
nitrogen from the air than from the soil.
We believe, too, that the roots left in
the soil after moving the hay will con-
tain as much if not more nitrogen than
the crop, took from the soil Then say
we get two tons Of clover hay. This hay
will contain S2.S pounds of nitrogen taken
from the air We feed this hay and from
the feeding make but the actual cost of
the hay. Then we should, in the manure,
recover at least IS per cent. of the nitro
gent, worth $9>31. 1t looks to US as
though that nitrogen has really been got
ten without cost, and we believe it has,
for a good feeder should get more, or
some profit from the feeding above actual
cost. In the feeding, too, the greater
part of the phosphoric acid and potash
will be returned to the soil.
We know farms which have been
brought up from a product of 10 bushels
of wheat per acre to an average of 40
bushels, in q three-year rotation of corn.
wheat and clover, on which for twenty or
more years not an ounce of any fertilizer
has been applied except plain acid phos-
phate. An old friend in Maryland recent
ly wrote to Us that on his farm, which
for many years has made an average of
10 bushels of wheat per acre, he has not,
for over twenty years, used any fertilizer
except acid phosphate atNan average cost
of $3.50 per ton, and his land has been
increasing in productiveness. This looks
as though his nitrogen has not been cost
inc much.