Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-01-08


BY the oan in the cool place ~ WI, WI,
then be found that the pihnss ~,
practically stop growing, or at iease
Will grow very slowly, while the p'ants
in the two cans stll remaining III uno
warm place Will continue 10 s'e"
rapidly and develop we'll
VARIETY OF CROPS AND FOOD.
Let us now consider the Dement'S de,
rived from crop rotation; lhot Is, Ny
following one crop with n different crop,
instead OF growing the same crop year
after. year upon the same land.
In animal feeding. frequent change
OF food and "A variety OF foods nave
been found very beneficial No matter
how complete and well balanced par
ticular food may be. or how wen II may
be relished at first, It soon becomes tire>
some unless rotation of other FOODS
of sufYicient variety and frequency Ia
provided. Undoubtedly the prolonged
use OF n single article of diet without
change will Introduce substances. or
will set UP changes or conditions ~
the body which seriously interfere Win
its normal functions. A change OF
diet provides time and opportunity for
the elimination of these objectionable
products. and for the overcoming ~
tlnfavorable conditions. 1t does not
appear Improbable that a crop grown
long lipon the same land might nitro
duce into the soil both substances ana
conditions which become. by accumula-
ton, injurious to the growth OF the
particular kind of crop which produced
these substances or conditions. whlle
TO another crop they might be harmless
or even beneficial.
PLANTS POISON THE SOIL.
rhe bureau of soils of the depart
ment of agriculture at Washington nus
recently done a great deal of work up
on this phase of soil fertility. The IN
vestigators have come to the conclu-
sion that each crop gives off toxic
or poisonous substance, which Is IN
furious to the particular crop that pro-
duced It, 1t thus makes the soil un-
sanitary to that particular crop whlch
therefore refuses to grow normally, or
not at all Crop rotation Is not much
practised in the west. The same crop
is usually grown upon the same lana
year after year. as long as 1t VIII grow
at all. This is great mistake in our
agriculture.
SYSTEM OF ROTATION.
The systems of rotation which have
been practised and pronounced salts
factory under different conditions anu
in all Varieties of soils, usually consist
of "a some crop which only partly
covers the ground and which permits
cultivation through full half or more
of the growing season; as corn, pota-
toes, beets; (2) some leguminous crop,
like lucern or clover, which faVors the
fixing of free nitrogen from the air;
and go some crop like grain or grass,
which completely covers the field. The
grains and grasses fully use up botn
the nitrates and the other salts. The
leguminous crop also uses up
foods but permits the production Of
more organic nitrogen. Cultivated or
hold crops like corn, potatoes and roots,
while they consume the nitrates already
iil the OIL permit excellent facilities
for the production in the soil of more
than they use by changing them to
available forms. 1t is, therefore, RAJ
lional practise to follow a cultivated
crop with grain, In order to make use
of the accumulated plant foods. Grain
should then be followed with ucern or
clover In order to accumulate fresh
supply of nitrogen from the atmos-
phere. Finally the leguminous crops
should then be followed with lucern or
corn, which provide favorable condi-
lions for the development of nitrifying
organisms by reason OF the frequent
cultivation which these crops require.
A ROTATION EXPERIMENT.
A very instructive experiment illus
trating the benefit of rotating crops
may be carried on on any piece of
should be followed with potatoes or
containing a square rod. Have them
both plowed or dug up and otherwise
handled in the same manner. Sow one
ground. Use two plats of ground each
to wheat every year for IL
number of years, and rotate
crops on the other as follows: First
two years lucern, third year potatoes
or corn, fourth year wheat, fifth year
sow again to lucern. At the end OF
five years, figure up the products. You
will find that the greatest value has
been realized from the rotated plat,
while the soil is also in much better
condition on that plat at the end of
that length OF time than on the other.
EXPERIMENTS IN TERMINATION.
Two very instructive experiments
can be performed illustrating first, the
terminating power of seeds, and sec
ond, the proper depth to plant seeds
OF various kinds.
To test the terminating power or vi
tally of seeds, take two common
plates: upon one put little sawdust
and over this place Il piece of flannel.
Thoroughly moisten the sawdust and
flannel. Now count out 100 seeds of
the variety you wish to test just as
they come, poor and good alike. Place
them on the wet flannel and cover with
another piece of wet flannel. Put the
plate over this one, and set it in mod
erately warm place. After AZ hours
count and remove all the sprouted
seeds. DO this each day for Ave days
After this time, all the seeds that will
sprout will have done so, and the per
centage of termination can be calculat-
| ed. IL will he necessary to add water
| from time 10 time 80 as to keep the
| 1lannels and sawdust damp. Good seed
should have q terminating power OF
| from 90 to 9S per cent. To test the prop
er depth to plant seeds, NIL a tall bot
| tie with soil and place seeds at various
| depths such as /, 2, 3, A. and
| Inches. Place them near the glass, 50
| their progress may be seen through the
sides. Wrap the bottle In black paper
| which should be taken off only wher
examining the seeds The paper keeps
| cut the light so that the seeds vii
terminate naturally and the resulting
| rlLrtlets develop normally. AS the
plants progress, the experiment will
rtadily show what depth of planting
IiC duces the best plants.
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