The Montgomery tribune., 1908-04-17
Soil Treatment For Corn on
the Northeast Missouri
Prairie

shown some very interesting re-
suits with corn, which are quite
widely available. 1t will be un-
derstood that these experiments
are designed to determine the
best soil treatments for the var
ious crops on this land and they
include such matters as the grow
ing of cowpeas for their effect on
the soil together with the addi-
tion OF lime, of bone and Of potash
in various combinations.
In 1907 the yield of corn from
the various treatments was al
follows:
Cowpeas treatment. .44.2 bu. per
acre.
Cowpeas and lime. 81. bu. per
acre.
Cowpeas lime and bone ..........
54.4 bu. per acre.
Cowpeas, lime, bone and potash.
55.3 bu. per acre.
Soil receiving no treatment. ......
80 bu. per acre.
1t will be seen that cowpeas in
creased the yield SO bushels per
acre; cowpeas and lime 13 bu.
per acre; cowpeas, lime and bone
15.4 bushels per acre; cowpeas
lime, bone and potash 17.3 bu.
per acre.
From these results some very
valuable lessons can be drawn.
In the first place since this land
needs nitrogen the use OF cow
peas is of special value. They are
best handled by sowing them as
a catch crop either in the corn or
after some other crop has been
tax en- OF the land and pasturing
them with sheep or hogs. A
number of men in this region
are already sowing cowpeas in
their corn for pasture in this way
aud are reaping good returns in
forage as we'll as improving their
soil. The cowpeas can be grown
very successfully on this land
W hen properly handled and es-
peeially on the flatter prairie
where clover freezes out are to be
strongly recommended. A little
pers istaDce in growing them will
bring success.
The use of lime in corn while
giving some results in this case is
recommended only in an exper-
imental way and then on the fat
ter, wetter phases of the territory.
The value of bone meal on this
land is strikingly brought out by
these experiments while the value
of potash does not seem
to be so important. Since this
land lacks phosphate so very
m uch as shown in the analysis one
would expect that the phosphates
wo uld give results. Bone meal is
recommended largely because it
is available in this territory. For
i'm mediate results the superphos-
phat may be better applied at
the same rate as the bone meal,
while for long series of years
rock phosphate will undoubtedly
give better returns than either.
1t should be said in general re-
gard ing the use of either bone or
potash that it seems to bring best
returns the thinner more worn
phas es of this soil on the whole.
While it always brings a crop re-
turn it is notusually accompanied
by a very large income. The use
of complete fertilizer in the hill
put in with fertilizer planter at
the rate of so to rs pounds per
acre will ordinarily bring great
er income the immediate year.
ISuch a fertilizer would be one OF
the grain growers or ammoniated
bone and potash. Bone alone
would also give results in many
cases as a complete fertilizer
This hill fertilization does not
build up the land, however though
it may bring good net return fol
a series of years, the wise farmer
will depend more upon logumin-
GUS crops like cowpeas and clover
and feeding his crops back or
his land rather than upon the
temporary use of fertilizer OF
this sort.