The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-05-06


come to this country, had bought a poor,
upland farm. having heavy clay SUBJ
soil. lie said he had improved his soil
every year by the use of clovers, COW peas
and barnyard manures. He had never
thought of the fact that he was all the
while feeding his soil almost entirely upon
nitrogen: he had not heard before of the
value of phosphoric acid and potash in
connection with his nitrogen We gave
all this informa ton and we shall be
greatly surprised if this farmer does not
raise the yield of his 1906 crop from two
to five bushels per acre.
Enough of this class of farmers will
stop the deterioration of our wheat. and
will also enable us to hold our boosted
position, that of great exporters of wheat
and wheat products.
Lesson of the PARALLELS.
The Master knew what farmer would
allow tares to grow in the wheat Just as
long as time would last. Now we must
not lose sight of the fact that all these
parallels were used to make or have a
spiritual application, and while this Is
true they also carry with them a moral
and practical side "a sower went out
and sowed good seed in his field But
while he slept his enemy came and sowed
tsres among the wheat and went his
way There are many ways by which
seed become distributed and II matters
not whether an enemy has sown the seed
or whether some bird has dropped them,
the seed of the tares produce the same
evil results. One little seed of some of
our tares will If left alone do as the
small sin in tn, heart '7hen left alone,
1t Will spoil the whole harvest
The ingenuits of Yankee brains has
been taxed in trying to invent machinery
that could separate the tares from the
wheat. Tares are one of the causes of
deterioration in wheat The Providence
farmer In this Is like he is In all other
farm operations He waits. keeps putting
Off pulling up tares. time goes on and the
tares and the wheat ripen together. are
harvested and thrashed together and
sold together to the miller who is COM
PEELED to make all allowance for wear and
tare on the machinery In cleaning this
grain and further allowance has to be
made for loss of grain. for no experiment.
er has yet inverted a machine that will
take all the tares from wheat without
some loss of wheat. The farmer has to
bear this loss.
But the better class of farmers the
class that are feeding the world screen
their seed clean before sowing. They are
not even satisfied with this, but for fear
that some enemy has dropped a seed
OF tares he goe- over his fields of grow
ing wheat often and pulls out every
plant produced from tare seed that can
be found. But should plant escape his
notice and mature. when he harvests his
crop he follows the Scripture advice and
gathers these tares and burns them In
the fire.
Now we have outlined few of the
reasons why we hear the millers COM
planning of the quality of the wheat and
corn Also, these reasons answer partly
the question of the farmers, why their
soil does not give greater yield of wheat
and other grains. We have too many
stony ground and thorn land farmers.
There are other reasons. such as seed Sc
lection preparation of the seed bed and
the proper use of plant foods all of
which will be treated under the proper
headings, and we hope that the reader
will feel 1t to his advantage to follow us
through this little work.
Soil and Soil Preparation.
The wheat plant can accommodate
itself to a very great variety of soils
provided that all soils are prepared and
supplied with the necessary plant food
properly balanced
We have two plants, wheat and the
Irish potato. that must have In order to
bring out their best qualities virgin
soil. Where this condition does not exist
some preparation must be made to have
the soil as near virgin new as possible
Now the question is, how can this be
done at least expense and in the short
est time? We would say by well out
lined system of rotation of crops. First.
restore to the soil the organic matter.
humus or decayed vegetable matter This
may be accomplished by the use of clovers
and our podded legumes: also by the use
of barnyard manures IT would probably
be best in many cases to use both to-
gether
Now, as above stated the wheat plant
will grow on great many soils sandy
loan, heavy clay and on strong lime
stone land, but in all these soils It Is i'm
portant to prepare a deep. rich seed bed
by using sufficient amount of this or
ganic matter. and following this up at
the proper time with the necessary plant
food needed for top dressing
Now of late we hear and read very
much about seed breeding and selection
of seed of various grains. This Is all
very well and Is one the things needed
to increase the yielc and improve the
quality of all grains. But this is COM
mencing at the wrong end to build. The
first thing needed is for farmers to edu-
cate themselves In soil building. also in
the care. management and preparation of
the SOIL for without these being properly
understood and practiced there would be
no need OF procuring high grade. pedi-
greed seed 1t would only be -..fA nf