The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1907-03-20
Manures and Fertilizers.


no farm capable of producing crops
year after year, for all soils must be
supplied with that which should take
the place of the substances removed
during the growth Of crops. Plants,
like animals, have life, are possessed
of organs and vessels in which circu-
lates fluid, and Which aided by an
appropriate nourishment, develop an
organic mass in a given time. The
most fruitful soil will be that which In
the same time will have produced the
most considerable weight of organic
matter reduced to q dry state. All
manure put into the earth should be
in state Of humus and as soluble In
water as possible, so that the plants
can seize upon 1t and appropriate 1t
to themselves. Manure consists Of all
the elements of vegetable matter. AS
soon as it is soluble the roots absorb
it and communicate 1t to the interior
organs of the plant, which secrete 1t In
the parts in which it has need to de-
velop itself; hence the more piece of
land is mixed with soluble manure,
the more 1t produces plants and vege-
table qualifications, only the consump-
tion of the manure is not the same In
all. In order to derive crops from the
soil, therefore, the weight of the plant
foods added to the soil, either in the
forms of manure or fertilizer, should
be equal to the plant foods of the crop
to be obtained; in other terms, when
one wishes to obtain from field which
has no trace of manure production OF
given weight it Is necessary to carry
and place in this field other organic
matters produced elsewhere and of an
equal weight, or the soil will lose in
fertility.
Plant foods exist in the soil in solu-
BILE condition as we'll as in the form of
inert mineral matter. Plants, to ac-,
complish their life, to arrive to the
state of being organic, have absolute
ly need of that which is the result of
the decomposition of other vegetable
or animal organic matter spread upon
the surface of the earth. Some plants
are largely beneficial, as there. are
plants which, although imparting to
the soil part of their nourishment, by
the means of their roots left in the
ground, appropriate to themselves also
great quantity of atmospheric matter
by means of their leaves, such as car
ben, and have, besides this great ad-
vantage, that even when they are car
ried out of the field they leave more
organic matter than they have con-
sumed for their growth. 1t Is largely
owing to this admirable property Of
certain plants to produce more or
ganic matter than they absorb from
the earth that 1t is possible to maintain
the fertility of piece of ground In
rendering to 1t only part of that
which it has produced. If plants were
nourlshed only by the humus spread
upon the earth farmers would be COM
PEELED to replace the production which
cannot be converted into manure by a
proportionate quantity Of vegetables
cultivated in another piece of land, and
if the strength Of the vegetation should
diminish even little by little, the money
used for the cultivation Of the soil
would eventually be lost. Fortunately
for the farmer. he can increase the
quantity of plant food in his soil by
growing crops to be plowed UNDER or
by adding barnyard manure and fer
tilizer, the advantages thus afforded
being within the reach Of all.-Phila-
delphia Record.