St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-03-21
NATURES GREAT BANK.
The Land is the Storehouse That
Honors All Drafts.

The Land is the Storehouse That
Honors All Drafts.
This is the age of gigantic banks.
Banks of nations, corporate banks and
individual banks, and bank failures,
but the bank of the world was estab-
lished on the morning of creation, and
from that day to this it he's paid royal
dividends, and has not for single
day suspended or closed it's doors.
The Creator Of all things founded it
on a Rock of Ages, created bureau
of deposits, called nature, which has
made daily deposits from the first day
till now. These deposits exceed in
value all the precious metals ever
mined, or the unmined riches of Colo
RADIO, California, Alaska and South
America, with diamond mines of
South Africa thrown in.
The soil Of the world constitutes
this bank of the world By the op-
erations of nature the products of the
soil are returned to it annually, thus
increasing the original deposit of soil
fertility. Nature works by centuries,
and for centuries. Grasses on the
plains and prairies, leaves of the al
most limitless forests, have been fall
ing and decaying to deposit humus in
the soil for centuries. Legumes have
drawn nitrogen from the air and de-
posted it in soil. Animal substances
and disintegrated rock have contrib.
uted their deposits, to the sum total,
till its vastness is so astounding that
1t bankrupts all arithmetic to supply
figures to express the magnitude of
its wealth. Neither Is this wealth
boarded nor made available, but is
distributed over the wide surface of
the world and pennies or dimes or
dollars are on deposit in every square
rod of land and so near the surface
that any man of brains and energy
to use the pillow, the spades and the
hoe can find them.
The fertility of the soil is the farm
er's greatest and most dependable
bank account. which by a wise and
judicious management he should nev-
er allow to grow less. No matter how
large a deposit a man may have in
bank, if he draws on it continually
and makes not adequate deposits, his
account in time will be exhausted and
his checks returned, dishonored by
the words, mo funds" So of his soil
deposits, no matter how large, if he
draws on it continually, but adds no
deposit in return, it's fertility will be
exhausted and his labor dishonored,
because there are mo funds" Every
crop the farmer produces draws upon
the soil for just so much nitrogen.
potash and phosphoric acid and the
fertility of the soil is equal
to the amount of those substances
required to produce the particular
crop. An equal amount of these must
be returned to the. soil to maintain
its fertility. This can not be done by
commercial fertilizers alone. These
make available certain substances in
the soil and may have behind an In
definite quantity, but the soil requires
humus which these do not supply.
Nature is our great teacher No one
has ever been able to supplant her
nor improve on her methods. She is
a soil builder, and her raw materials
are grasses and forest leaves for
humus, and leguminous plants She
has been centuries in building, and it
is up to the farmer to say whether
her work shall be maintained or
in one century he will de-
stroy what she has been decades of
centuries in building. The conserva-
ton and restoration of soil fertility
IS the greatest proposition before the
American people The farmer must
maintain his soil fertility or drop be-