Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1909-02-06
SOIL ENRICHMENT LESSONS
Ground Kept Rich and Sweet
for Over Sixty Years in Eng
land--Intelligent Farming.

The Rothamsted fields at Harpen-
den, England, comprise the oldest ex-
pertinent station in the world, and
when Director A. D. Hall came over
to this country to tell our farmers
something of what has been accom-
plished there he conferred a great benz
eft upon American agriculture.
He talked to q meeting of farmers
and land owners from twenty or moro
Illinois counties at the Illinois farm
and spoke very highly of the co-opera-
tive plan of the Illinois soil expert
ments, and much of his story of the
Rothamsted results confirmed the re-
suits of the work done here. %
Mr.. Hall said that the continuity Of
the Rothamsted experiments has been
an essential feature. The same fer
tility has been put on a new plot of
the same crop rotation for sixty Ave
years in some cases. Grass has been
grown on one Rothamsted field for
more than fifty years. Hay is cut twice
a year and no stock Is ever allowed
on the field.
| This field shows an extraordinary
diversity of heritage. II the conditions
are changed ever so little it is sure to
benefit one set Of plants. On one plot
| WlllSIl Has TeCGlNeu UO leTllHty sWidt-
ever there are forty-six different spe-
cies of plants struggling for existence.
The crop is seven inches high and
| yields a ton per acre. But plot which
received full treatment of phosphates
and potash grows plants fourteen
inches high and yields two and half
tons Of hay.
/ There was large preponderance OF
clover for the very good reason that
legumes are able to draw nitrogen from
the atmosphere, and with the phos-6
phorus and potash clover gets the adj
vantage.
One of the most important state
ments made by Mr.. Hall is that le-
gumes improve the soil more than di-
rect application Of nitrogen fertilizer.
But where nitrogen alone Is used and
the clover lacks phosphorus and pot
, ash the grass gets the start and turns
the clover out. Nitrogen makes the
! whole clover plant flourish, and the
farmer is apt to take more of nitrogen
> than Of phosphorus and potash. be-
2 cause he may have to wait till harvest
and actually weigh the product to get
S the results. Nitrogen puts off tho
! ripening, and excessive use of this fer
tilizer has doubled the amount OF
o vince straw, Dut reduced the per Cen1
e OF grain from 62 10 AZ per cent. On
beet lands the more water there is In
i the soil the less sugar there is In the
beet.
v Too much nitrogen makes plants
t mo" ceptble to disease, especially
FL disease. Mangolds at Roth
: ali are swept every year with
fungous disease, whi.e two feet away
e are sound and healthy beets. The In
: lection is alike in both places, but II
: takes" only on the crop having an
excess of nitrogen. The diseased
e leaves are torn, shriveled and rotten
k Wheat fields get rusty and weeds are
widowed on high nitrogen land.
It Phosphorus hurries the production
n of flowers and seed and the ripenins
Ii of grain; it makes difference of ter
days In the appearance of barley grain
1t is also an extraordinary stimulan'
to the growth OF roots and sid,
shoots.
1t Is a special action of potash Il
g aid the plant in making sugar and
e starch (carbohydrates) This process,
/ cannot go forward unless potash 1,
r present The yield of beets at Roth
amsted has been more than doubled
@ by the addition of potash.