Milford chronicle., 1909-09-17

! source the gfeIleF snare OF lulS ere
ment used by the plant must come. If
your soil IS black, spongy and well
supplied with humus there is little
/ danger that the plant VIII go hungry
/ for nitrogen One Of the best ways to
/ keep a field i'm this condition IS to APP
I ply liberal quantities Of barnyard ma
nure. Another way is to plow under
green crops especially clover Some
times it is necessary to buy nitrogen
for the plant in tho form of CONNER
cial fertilizers. but this is a very eX-
pensive way Of obtaining it,
Even when the plant is given all the
nitrogen it can use it sometimes fails
to do well. This is because it cannot
get as much Of the mineral elements
as It needs.
Too much nitrogen in proportion to.
the amount of mineral elements causes
the plant to "gO an to vines" There
win be an excessive growth Of leaves,
but the yield Of grain will be small
Take an ear Of corn or a bunch Of hay
and burn it, The ashes that are left
are the mineral parts Of the plant
These cannot be obtained from air or
water but must come from the soil |
Some Of the most important Of these
are iron, which is the substance thar
helps to build up chlorophyll, and sui .
phur, which is found in the nitroge- /
nous parts Of the plant There are a I
number of others also. all of which /
are present i'm the soil in such large 7
amounts that there will probably all
ways be all that the crops can use.
Two of these minerals, however, po-
tassium and phosphorus, are not so
plentiful When the plant cannot get
enough potassium the grain viii not
be filled out well. If there is too little
phosphorus. especially i'm the case of
fruit trees. the development Of fruit
is checked Adding barnyard manure
to the soil helps to keep up the supply
Of these two materials. On farms
where little stock is kept or where
grain has been raised continually for
years and little attention paid to the
soil it is sometimes necessary to apply
phosphorus and potassium in the form
Of commercial fertilizers.
In the eastern part Of this countrv
there are many farms that have be
come so badly run down that crops
will not grow at all unless they are /
fed with commercial fertilizers. Theso
are very expensive. and it often takes
nearly all a farmer makes to pay bis
fertilizer bills. These farms would
never have become so worn out if they
had been properly cared for Leaving
plowed ground especially on hiUsides
exposed for several months during the
fall and winter allows much plant food
to wash away. Growing the same
crop year after year wears out the
land rapidly Different crops require
different kinds Of food BY changing
crops from year to year no one food
material is used 90 excess and the
others wasted. BY keeping as much
stock on the farm MS possible. sayine
the manure carefully and spreading it
on the fields before it rots or. teaches ,
away and by using leguminous plants I
to gather nitrogen the soil can be kep. {
well supplied with plant food.
Il is much mere profitable to feed
the crops in this way than to buy
plant food ON the market at excessive
prices Usually, however. the plant Is
hungry for the mineral elements not 5
because they are not in the soil. but {
because they are I'm form in which /
1t cannot get at them. The roots OF
The plant spread all through the sci J.
In search Of food If you viii look al I
a little root through a magnifyina 4
glass you viii see that it is covered
with root hairs II is through these
root hairs that the plant takes up food {
from the soil. There are no opening;
directly into them. but the walls are n
so thin that the water can soak y
through to the inside. Solid sub
stances, Of course, cannot get in so
hat the plaut food must be dissolved
n water before It can get into the Z
'oots and so up to the chlorOphyll
which is waiting to build It into seeds
II leaves.
If the soil has been worked until It I
s fine and loose each little particle