The Glenwood post., 1905-05-06
THE FARM AND RANGE
Maintaining Soil Fertility.


Bulletin No. 80 of the Agricultural
Experiment Station of the Colorado
Agricultural College, by Prof. William
P. Headden, deals with the question,
How Can We Maintain the Fertility
of Colorado Soils?"
After showing by farm records in
Colorado that the soil rapidly deterio-
rates, as in other sections, without arti-
ficial fertilization, Professor Headden
expresses doubts of the feasibility of
prottably using potash salts or super
phosphates and Chili-saltpetre, giving
the preference as fertilizers to barn
yard manure and alfalfa.
OF barnyard manure he says: "The
use of barnyard manure is pre-emi.
nently method of maintaining the fer
tility of the land, but it is in meas
ure method of increasing it by i'm
proving the conditions of the soil; also
by adding organic matter, and in our
case by increasing the supply of nitro
gen.
OF the use of alfalfa as green ma
nure, he says:
There are several considerations
which lead me to think this the best
plant which we possess for this pur-
pose.
Our soils are only fairly rich in nj
trogen, and an addition of this element
from time to time is very advisable.
Alfalfa is an energetic gatherer of this
substance, largely from the atmos-
phere, the young alfalfa shoots being
relatively very rich in this element
There are but few plants, even among
the legumes, by means of which we
can add nitrogen to the to the soil so
clp1nly nv nf alfalfa
Alfalfa is not only an eneretic
gatherer of nitrogen from the atmos-
phere, but it is also an energetic gath
erer of other plant food from the soil,
so much so that a ton of alfalfa hay
made from plants cut in May before
and blossom buds had appeared, con
tanned about sixty pounds of potash,
equivalent to Ill pounds of the pure
sulphate of potash, and whose value
would be $500 at the price prevailing
last year, while the nitrogen in the
same would be worth $3.50, nearly"
The bulletin goes on to discuss the
effects of alfalfa culture, giving the re-
suits of experiments, and adds:
Some other facts at which we have
arrived are of interest in this connec-
ton, !. e., the actual manurial value of
the stubble. On an acre of alfalfa
taken to the depth of six inches it is
worth, estimated in the same manner
that we have estimated the manurial
value of the hay, not far from $1,000 per
acre, while the roots below the depth
of six inches possess value of $1,000,
or the stubble and roots together have
a value of about $1,000 per a ere. 1t
may be a rather difficult task to turn
under growing crop of alfalfa in mid
die or lote spring, but it is also diff
cult to correctly estimate the great
manurial value of the excellent mater
ial thus added to the soil; it is GER
tainly very much in excess of the fig
ures given above.
which alfalfa is probably our best crop
to use as means of benefting the soil.
1t has been intimated, though not eX-
plicitly stated, that our soils are often
very firm at shallow depths. so much
! so that it is very probable that
scarcely any cultivated plant may be
able to reach the greatest depth to
which it can and would feed under or
dinarily favorable conditions. A good
stand of alfalfa, say three years old,
will probably have 100000 plants to
the acre, or more than ten plants to the
square foot every one of which pene-
trates the soil to depth much greater
than the usual feeding depth of such
plants as potatoes. beets, wheat etc.
They not only in this way open up the
soil to the attack of less vigorous
roots, but fill these channels with a
supply of plant food, accompanied by
mass of organic matter that by its de
cay may bring still more2 plant food
into available form.
This subject of preserving and even
of increasing the fertility of our soils
cannot be too strongly urged upon the
attention of our agricultural popula-
ton"