Norwich bulletin., 1909-04-24

have a bit of clay loan, rather heavy
soil, on which ! nave raised potatoes
several times. Any stable manure
whatever. applied to that field, harms
the crop-induces over development of
vines at the expense of the tubers. 1t
also invariably results in rot. A dress
| ing of bone meal and sulphate of pot
ash. on the other hand, gives me good
results there On another field of
sravelly loam.. everything hardpan, l
have found that a heavy dressing Of
coarse stable manure, plowed in,
counts big. Yet, even on that piece, a
top dressing of high grade complete
fertilizer, narrowed in after plowing,
seems to do a lot of good.
II is the same about rotation of
crops. There is no doubt whatever
that in many cases rotation is almost
an essential. In probably all cases it
saves fertilizer. Grass is one feature
OF almost every rotation scheme. Grass
makes turf. and turf makes hunus
when it is plowed under and rotted.
If your soil calls for humus you must
supply 1t in some way. Flowing the
sNard under saves you the trouble and
expense of drawing humus on. But
not all soils depend for productiEeness
or humus l have heard of a big po-
tato grower up in New Hampshire who
has raised potatoes for twenty-seYen
years. consecutively. on the same land.
with chemical fertilizers alone-and
raised good crops too. Per contra, |
personally know a man who plowed an
old pasture-first time in forty years
put on absolutely no manure or fer
tilizer of any sort and raised the rec
ord crop of potatoes in his township
thereon. Seed, soil and seasonal con-
ditions must all be reckOned with, as
well as fertilizer.
Hereabouts the universal rule of
formers is to put corn on sod ground.
| Corn is a gross feeder; it has the most
tremendous root system of any crop
we raise; its roots push farthest and
fastest through a porous and open soil
such as that offered by a turned turf
Yet | have raised corn for seven years.
good corn, on the same acre of land.
The demands of convenience led me to
try the experiment. l have every year
| hauled my coarsest, strawiest manure
| on that acre to be plowed under and
have top dressed and hill-dropped a
complete fertilizer in addition. l draw
OF the acre every year from twenty to
thirty loads Of manure. and then use
as much fertilizer as l would have
| used, had the field been turned-under
turf with no stable manure. think
that rotation would be more econOmi-
cal for me if I had the right land.
rightly situated to take up a new plot
every year for four or five years. I
I haven't. This lack of land has taught
me to do what the "old farmers" all
pooh-p OOhed as impossible-raise good
| corn, year after year, on "old ground"
In my truck garden am compelled
to raise crops on the same old ground,
every year and I think as a whole,
the place is steadily getting richer and
more productive. But it takes ma
nure and chemicals. both. and a lot
| OF them. On some plats ! use only one
| sort on Some plats light dose of one
and heavy dose Of the other; on some
a heavy dose of both. When | find a
certain variety doing well in GER
tain place, I stick to 1t. and do my
level best to find out why it does well
and what viii make it do better If
stable manure doesn't seem to improve
things nOticeably, l stop spreading it
there and try chemicals. If repeated
variations in the character of chemical
supps&s fails to produce results on
another lot, I go back to stable ma
nure. For several seasons 1 got earlier
and better tomatoes by using straight
COW manure than by anything else.
Last year and year before. results
weren't as good. This year I am go
ing TO test the effect of liberal dress
ing OF 0-J-1l Iertll1Zer, cultivated in
after the plants are beginning to bud.
But it's all wonderfully "hit-or- miss"
work.
Sometimes a policy works out all
right for five or six years and goes to
pieces like a bad egg against a harm
door. the next season. Some years the
very stars in their courses fght
against you. Then the next year YOU
can grow egg plant on a shovel. Ev-
cry season I find some Of nv calcula-
tons upset and some of them upheld
by results It's a fascinating game
il you take it as a game; an absorb
ing one if you make it a study But
it's best not to be too tremendously
serious over it About the only sure
gain I've made in my soil working ex-
perience is that now I know I don't
know as much as I thought 1 knew
when I began.
Let me tell you. that's a mighty use
full thing to feel sure Of!
THE FARMER.