The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-04-16

That good farmer and clear thinker
and writer, Mr.. Agee of Ohio, in {
late number of the Stockman an(
Farmer quotes from The Practice
Farmer as follows: 1T is evident
then, that laboratory results are no
always to be relied upon when the ar
from our remarks In regard to insolu
BILE and soluble fertilizers Mr.. Age
further says: at is the ability o
Prof. Massey to value practical result
in farming above anv mere highly in
teresting theories of so-called scienc
that has made him power for good
Personally, | owe much to him in Sc
curing better results from land. Hi
persistent advocacy of the Southern
COW pea led me to try it in the North
and in fifteen years the cash value o
that plant on my farm was large
Again, in his advocacy of tn
second crop seed potatoes he has don
good to many of us. think he ha
come, in recent years, to value vegeta
BILE fibre in the soil more than he dit
formerly, and if this is so it is only il
line with the fact that his agricul-
tural science is applied SCIENCE and
not merely that of the theorist." We
thank our friend for his good opinion
of our efforts But he is evidently
wrong in supposing that we ever
valued vegetable matter in the soil less
than we now do. What we have per
sistently opposed, particularly for the
South, is what is called green manur-
ing" or the blowing down of green
vegetation with the idea that it viii
help the land. We are today as full
ly convinced that this is wrong as we
ever were. And yet we have Away;
valued the humus- making vegetable
matter in the soil and have always in
sisted upon the necessity of getting
it there when deficient. 1t was in the
method only that we have differed
from many Northern farmers and
writer's. We know from sad expert
ence that it is. temporarily injurious
to the productivity of the soil to pillow
down in hot weather a mass of green
growth like clover or peas, unless ac-
companied by lining sufficient to
check the tendency to rendering the
soil acid. For another reason we have
opposed the blowing under of clover
or peas in midsummer We grow
these plants largely for their ability
to catch and combine, for the use of
plants, the free nitrogen of the air
This is being done more during the
latter part of the annual peas life and
during the midsummer growth of the
clover than at any other time, and if
we pillow the crops under we cut short
the work they were doing for us, and
we get less Oh the nitrogen, ana less
organic matter for the soil than if we
let them grow to maturity. Mr. Agee
will remember that years ago in the
Practical Farmer we scored the editor
of a fertilizer periodical who told US
to give humuS a rest, and who seem
| ed to think that commercial fertilizers
were all that is needed for the inn
provement of our lands We valued
vegetable fibre in the soil then. We
value it more and more every year II
that is what our friend means But
we value it too highly to cut the plants
short and run the risk of souring our
soil when by letting them get their
full growth and in cool weather plow-
! ing the whole down, will run no risk
of undue fermentation in the soil. We
are no more inclined to give humus a
rest than when we fought for the
farmer against the absurd claims OF
! the fertilizer man.