The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-01-06
FOOD FOR PLANTS.
!. L. BURGESS WRITES OF NEW
 AGRICULTURAL MOVEMENT.
He Tells of The Importance of The Sofl Survey Now Being Made
 By The State.


 ]. l.. Burgess, who is In charge Of Soil Utilization in the Sixth Congress sional District has prepared an In structive article on Commercial Plant Foods" On this subject Mir. Burgess writes:
 ''The Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries for the State of Ala bama, expects soon to put into each home in the state a soil map of the county in which that home is located. We shall then be able to discuss Ter tilizers. crop adaptations, and otner agricultural problems with greater degree of intelligence than 1t Is pos sible for us to do at present; because we shall then begin the study of the individual soil type as found on each farm
 At present we can speak only in general terms, knowing that the re- suits obtained in the farm practices of the state will be as varied as are the soil types with which the farmers have to deal. Bearing this in mind, then, we will discuss, in this article, only general principles relating to the commercial plant foods
 I've, of course. should not apply the same brand or formula of fertilizer to all our different soils alike. To do this would be to waste at least one or two of the clements of the mix
 
 be chosen with reference to type of soil of which 1t Is to be used. For ex- ample, If we have poor, sandy. up- land soil that must be farmed with out green or stable manures we will need to use relatively more nitrogen than if the soil contained large amount of humus. If we have good. rich bottom or upland soils we will use less nitrogen and relatively more phosphoric acid. As a rule the loose. sandy soils are deficient in potash while the heavy, clayey soils are well supplied with this element
 We will now turn our attention for a moment to some facts of general sap- plication relative to fertilizers for cer- tain lines of crops. We will first notice the cereals and grasses. It must be remembered that these crops, with the exception of corn. come on the land very early in the spring and at a time when nftrification Is least active in the soils. For these crops, then, we went to use liberal supply of avail able nitrogen. In case of the cereals we must let phosphoric acid occupy an important place in our formula. We may state it as a general rule that all plants grown for their seeds. as corn, oats, wheat, cotton. etc. must be liber- ally fed with phosphoric acid. While we do not grow cotton for the seed,
 
 to production of lint since the lint is an outgrowth from the seed and, as a rule, the more seed a cotton plant pro- duces the more lint 1t will yield. There have been certain experiments conducted which seem to show that when soil coalitions are most. favor able to the process of nitrificatfon the phosphates are rendered less soluble, and consequently less, available and this may explain why phosphoric acid Is so necessary to those staple crops grown during the summer months when nitrification is most active.
 ''The fertilizer for our leguminous crops must consist largely of phos- phoEic acid, potash. and lime. Little or no nitrogen need be added since these crops are capable of extracting from the air all of this element they need.
 NRoots and .tubers need liberal ap- plications of all three of the fertilizer elements but we will be safe If we let potash predominate in our formulae for these crops. A possible exception IS found in the ease of turnfps which wants more phosphorus.
 'In the growth of orchards we need complete fertilizer until the trees come into bearing when potash should greatly predomtnate in our formulae
 We have thus far spoken with reference to general farm crops only. If we are going to grow market gar den crops we will have to change our formulae to some extent We may say, as general rule. that all garden crops grown for leaf and stem need a large amount Of available nitrogen and this element must. therefore, be prominent in our fertilizer formulae For these market garden crops grown