Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-12-14
Volume XVIII.
farmers INSTITUTE
At WILLIAMSBURG.
LReported BY John q. Downer.I

was the best OF the series mere In attend
ancs, interest and grade, Of instruction inn
parted.
The exhibit OF crops and fancy work was
more extensive than that Of last year,
attracting much attention, but we believe
that our intelligent readers would prefer
that we use this space in reporting ideas
suggested rather than filing up the paper
with mere list OF exhibits.
In absence Of Director Of Institutes
Franklin Dye, Edward Van Alstyne, of
Undertook. New York, was introduced BY
John r. Downer, the genial New Yorker
having charge until the arrival Of Director
Dye, at noon.
Prof J. G. Lipman, chemist and bacteri-
ologiss in the New Jersey Agricultural
Experiment. Station. spoke upon Soil
Fertility.
German agricultural scientists declare
that sandy and sandy loom soils are to lead
in the agriculture Of the future because
they are the most susceptible to culture and
responsive to the plant foods.
Nations are mutually inter-dependent
both for supplies Of plant food and for
markets after these crops are grown.
America having vast deposits Of phosphases
sells to Germany, and the latter country
supplies the world from her inexhaustible
potash mines
Il will pay to test your soils to learn what
plant food elements they lack rather than to
apply costly high grade complete fertil-
izers indiscriminaseIy. In Kentucky there
are soil areas containing SO, 900 pounds of
phosphoric acid, in ten inches depth, to the
acre
Is BslgiS gfss.id Germany nitrogen Isl
obtained by Areen crops at one-third 10 one
half She cost OF commercial nitrates, but we
have not yet learned to fully apply our
knowledge Of gathering nitrogen by legumi-
nous plants.
Moisture is also a mighty factor in soil
fertility since it requires three hundred
tons Of water to grow the grass for one ton
Of hay
To she afternoon Prof Lipman discussed
Soil Inocnlation. =
''The world Of soil bacteria, though in
visible. except by the microscope, is never
tbeless real one, profoundly affecting the
affairs of the whole world.
Some bacteria change nitrogenous matter
into nitrates, while others, living upon
these nitrates, change them back into
insoluble forms.
No rock in the earth's crust contains
nitrogen, hence all of this element in she
soil has come from the air, which is four
ffths nitrogen, through ages Of chemical
changes, and it lies in the soil nearest the
earth's surface.
Scientific bacteriology ,applsed to agricul-
ture, induces the breeding Of higher,
stronger strains of bacteria, on one hand,
and the inoculation OF she soil TO make it
more favorable to bacterial growth, on the
other.'
DR.. E. B Voorhees,, President OF the
State Agricultural Society, Professor of
Agriculture in Rutgers College, New
Brunswick, and Director Of the New Jer-
seY Agricultural Experiment Station, gave
lucid address upon s'AlfaIfs Growing"
"Alialfa originated in ARABIA, and being
carried into Spain by the Moorish conquest,
was thence transported TO South America
and Mexico by the Spanish
Reaching California aud aourishing, it
gradually spread eastward unbil it now
grows in every State and in Canada attain
ing the annual value Of 500, 900, 900.
Fifteen counties OF New Jersey have sue
sessful Alfalfa fields, on all classes Of soils.
and by proper culture-methods can be grown
wherever corn makes good crop.
The first planting Of alfalfa, in 1897, at
the New Jersey Experiment Station, gave
the best returns we ever had, and is now
the MOST profitable crop grown upon the.
College farm.
As nitrogen gatherer il is the most re-
narkable Of the legume family, yielding
four crops Of hay season, on an average
for about ten successive years, in New Jer-
sey
Upon one acre Of Alfalfa, at New Bnrns-
wick, we have cut 26 tons Of green forage
that made ! tons Of dry hay, in one season,
and is proved to be the best OF cloyers for
feeding, replacing concentrated feeds such
IS brewers grains and cotton seed meal.
Alfalfa hay Is the richest Of all and costs
as but $500 ton TO produce il.
In iss earliest stages she life Of alfalfa is
feeble and so il requires the soil to be in
the finest condition and well supplied with
mineral plant foods =
Edward vAuAlstyue, whose home i il