Norwich bulletin., 1909-04-24
A FARMERS TALK TO FARMERS.
Land we Find lt-Cultivation we Know livery
Man Must Know His Own Land and the Needs of
His Own Garden-Facts About Crop Variation, Crop
Rotation and Crop Feeding Experiences and Results

written Specially for The Bulletin.)
I've just had a good letter from a
fellow gardener touching upon fer
tiliEation. He is a very modest chap
and doasn't undertake to teach the
universe that his way is the only way,
But he has manifestly run up against
n few OF those queer happenings which
seem to knock the stuffing out of all
the old theories and to contravene all
accepted custom.
For one thing he isn't certain about
khe value of rotation of crops. He has
one farmer friend who openly says 1t
doesn't amount to anything. He him
self has raised q certain crop in his
garden for thirteen years on end. the
same crop in the same place, without
the use Of any barnyard manure at all
just chemicals. And yet, there are
so many farmers of intelligence and
experience clinglng to the idea of ro-
Ia ton that I am not able to rid my
self of the impression that there must
be something TO it." For himself, he
is almost inclined to accept the English
idea that '1f you dibble your Land and
I'll the holes with special plant food
you can raise parSnips on an ash
heap"
To tell the truth, ! don't believe any
HVing man knows just how fertilizers
act or just how and what sorts to use
to get invariaOle and satisfactory re-
suits One thing only can be set down
as fairly certain; that every square
rod of land must be learned, by itself
and for each separate crop, and that,
even then. the results will depend
quite as much on the season as on
anything the cultivator can do. Fifteen
years experimenting has taught me
that one Of my pea patches wants
potash and lime. while potash and
lime, or either Of them, II put on the
other patch, not eight rods away, do
the crop no good-actuaDy injure 1t.
II is the old teaching that peas. being
nitrogen gathering legumeS, need no
nitrogen in the fertilizer applied to
them Yet on this second pea patch l
car better leave out both potash and
phosphoric acid than nitrogen. If /
don't give the soil any Of the latter
the peas will not come.
Again, after many years testing of
various early peas, / find that Greg
ory's Surprise beats any other wrinkied
pea with me by from two to five days.
A neighbor a mile away finds Mott s
Excelsior the earlier with him. One
year we "swapped' a little seed.
took some OF his Excelsior, he took
some of my Surprise. We both plant
ed the sorts side by side and at the
same time. AS usual, my Surprise
gave me peas days before his Excel
sior; his Excelsior gave him q mess
before the Surprise. Absolutely con-
Trajectory experience, you'll observe.
AIanifestly there's something about it
that we don't understand. Some years
ago a potato known as the Burbank
was the favorite market variety with
my potato growing neighbors. 1t grew
easily, yielded well, and sold freely. l
wanted to test some new kinds and so
got a bushel Of Burbanks from a neigh
boris seed bin. Ny acre had ten kinds
that year, a tenth OF an acre to each.
Ground about uniform; soil apparently
all alike; cultivation, fertilization and
treatment identical. The Burbank
tenth failed to return as much seed as
] planted: the very next tenth panned
out over thirty bushels OF Rural New
Yorker No. 2. Yet the field OF the man
from whom bought the Burbank seed
averaged him about ESQ bushels per
acre that Same year.
I don't believe any experiment sta
tion or agricultural college is going to
b. able to tell me what to plant and
how to 4ertilize. They can find out
their own lands. The result will be
immensely helpful to the man who
takes those same lands after them.
But their formulate are not certain
are not even likely to prove satisfac-
tory on my fields. What they can do
is to develop certain broad general
principles, lay down certain general
courses, and then leave us TO adapt
those principles and modify those
courses according to the conditions
which confront us. They can't do eth
err our handwork or our headwork for
us. Each must do his own by himself
ard for himself. He's unduIy stub
bern If he ignores any help they might
afford him. he's simply silly If he
bllndly accepts all he's told.
As to the barnyard manure and the
chemicals, profess no knowledge, ex-
cept that which applies just to a cou-
pie Of my own fields and to a very few
crops. I've mentioned peas Thus
far. I've found nothing so good for
my upper pea-garden as a light dress
ing Of good stable manure. "a similar
dressing on the other garden would
result IN al vines and no pods.)