Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-10-06
BURNING STRAW
ROBS THE SOIL
TEN POUNDS OF NITROGEN DE.
STROYED WITH EVERY TON,
SAYS EASTERN PAPAER.

"Wheatgrowers who burn the straw |
and will soon have cause to regret |
the practice" said Jacob Ziegler. of |
Clinton, ILL.,, who is visiting his broth
er, Louis Ziegler, in this city. Mr. |
Zlegler is practical stock farmer and |
practices complete system of rOta-
ton in crops. He said last night:
Land is like a cupboard. You have
to put something into it if you ex-
pect to take anything out for any
length of time. Western people follow
what might be called a chemical pro-
cess of farming. The idea is this:
The chemist takes the soil to his la.
boratory and extracts the elements,
the plant food, from it at once, and |
farmers of this type take these ele-
ments from the soil by slower pro-
cess as long as there is anything left |
to take.
This is always to be expected in a |
new country, but any soil is bound to |
wear out in time In Illinois, where |
we think we have some of the finest |
soil in the world, the land has been |
wearing out for long time, espec-
tally in the uplands, and now all of
the progressive farmers practice rOta-
ton of crops and endeavOr to restore
to the soil as much as they take out
Take 35 Pounds Nitrogen From Acre.
Here people put nothing into the |
soil but nature has been good to this |
country, and has provided it with an |
abundance of fertility. People here |
are taking out what nature has put |
in, but some day this will be exhaust
ed. 1t has been determined that it |
takes one pound of nitrogen three |
fourths Of pound of phosphate and |
three-fourths of pound of potash to
produce one bushel of grain. There |
is plenty of potash in the water, but |
the supply of phosphate, and especially
of nitrogen, is limited In ton of |
straw there are from eight to 10
pounds of nitrogen. Take land which |
produces 25 bushels of wheat to the |
acre, and it will also produce one ton
of straw to the acre in this country,
where the straw seems to be heavy.
When the grain is removed 25 pounds |
of nitrogen are taken away, and when |
the straw is burned 10 pounds more
nitrogen are removed, so that by this |
process about 35 pounds of nitrogen
are removed from every acre of land
each year.
Must Return Plant Food.
"This system is all right if the idea
is to make money, but if the idea is
to make farm and have a farm in
the future, this plant food must be
returned to the soil in some form. |
The best way to do this, according
to my view. is to feed all the farm
products on the farm and sell only the
| finished product, that is the beef pork
and mutton. Assuming that one acre
will produce 100 bushels of corn, if
we sell this to be used elsewhere, we
have taken 100 pounds of nitrogen
from the earth. 1t has been determ-
ined, however, that TO produce 100
pounds of pork or beef consumes only
one pound of plant food. One hun
dred bushels of corn fed to cattle will
produce from 500 to 900 pounds of
! beef. Hence if this corn is fed on the
/ land and the cattle or pork sold, only
eight or 10 pounds of plant food are
taken awaW from the land instead
of 100 pounds if the grain itself is
sold. Then if the manure and waste
material derived from this grain are
/ distributed over the farm there is
! practically the same amount of plant
( food left on the land as there was to
start with and the rainfall will make
up any deficiency This is the sys.
TEN follow on my farm, and the land
is getting better and raising better
crops instead of being worn out OF
course this is not possible where stock
farming is not followed
ANY crop if continued for any
length of time on the same land will
remove the particular substance re-
quired to produce it. To prevent this
we practice rotation in crops. In the
east we plant corn on part of the farm
for two years, then raise crop of oats
on the same piece, follow it with a
few crops of clover, and then put the
land to pasture for few years. Flax,
oats, rye, barley and the different
grasses are surface vegetation and do
not extract nitrogen from the deep
soil; while corn and clover, alfalfa are
deep rooted.
Zone crop of clover or alfalfa will
supply land with as much nitrogen
as ordinarily with right treatment will
be taken from it in 10 years by the
other crops. good stand of clover
Will put 80 pounds of nitrogen in an
acre in a season. This is really 60
pounds placed near the surface as 80
pounds will be stored from the air and
80 pounds from the deep soil This is
done by the bacteria which take nitro
gen from the leaves and store it in the
roots at the surface.
I'm the east where the ground is
a hard loan we must have vegetable
matter decay in the ground which
leaves air cells to operate as accumu-
lating places for water and to keep
the soil loose. Here the soil is full
of sand. and does not require this so
much This country has wonderful
possibilities in the way of agriculture.
The soil is deep, has plenty of phos-
phate. certainly plenty of potash, and
If water can be mixed with these ele-
ments almost anything can be raised"
-SpOkesman-Review