St. Tammany farmer., 1909-01-02
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!: FARMER AND
: PLANTER
AND INCREASING
FERTILITY OF SOIL.
fhe Problem of the South-Importance
OF Deep PIowing-As to Crop
Rotation.

Rotation.
If there is a subject of more vital
Importance to the people of the United
States at this time than that of main
tanning and increasing the fertility Of
our soils, it hasn't yet come to the
writer's attention.
With the people of foreign countries
calling for more and more Of the prod
ucts of our soil each year; the popula-
tion of our own country increasing by
millions every year, and demanding
greater production from our farms;
our rich original soil upon which we
have been depending too largely dur
ing the past three decades being prac-
tically all under cultivation, except
a small area which may yet be re-
claimed through irrigation; with our
older cultivated lands slowly but sure
ly decreasing in productive ability, is
it not well that we pause and consider
the welfare of the soil upon which we
depend for our very existence?
The average American farmer has
been land robber from the very be-
ginning. He has slaughtrd millions
upon millions of acres of forests, and
thus deprived the soil of its natural
protection. He has then robbed it OF
its fertility stored up by nature dur
ing the past thousands of years, and
he has added little or nothing in re-
turn. When these tracts have failed
through poverty to yield him an abun-
dance he has moved on to the deep
black soil of the prairie, and with his
four, six and eight-horse teams is do.
ing his best to accomplish her ruin.
This condition of things must be
changed and our farmers brought to
see that theirs and their countryS
greatest good lies in nurturing aad
enriching our soils rather than in rob-
bing and making them desolate.
The Problem of the South.
The south has, we believe, a great
er problem before her along the line OF
soil reclaiming than has any other
section of our country, because of her
having a larger proportion of washed
semi-starved land than any other sec
ton of the United States; but her
farmers have this to encourage them,
that, while hers is the greatest need,
YET she has, because of her location
and the rapid awakening of her farm
ers to a realization of her need, the
surest and most rapid means at hand
for remedying her trouble.
In order to remedy an evil, we must
know it's cause. The cause of the soil
poverty of the south, we believe, can
be traced to the following sources:
First, her almost universal (until re-
cently) system of cropping with crops
requiring clean cultivation; second,
her neglect of legumous or nitrogen
gathering crops; third, her neglect Of
grass or od-producing crops; fourth,
the sale of the bulk Of her products
as raw material; fifth, the neglect OF
a proper system of rotation; sixth,
shallow ard insufficient working of
sal neglect of live stock on her farms.
Two other causes there are for her
sad condition of soil depletion beyond
the means of her farmers to remedy
except as they counteract these forces
by means within their reach. They
are the torrential rainfaIls that her
soils have to Withstand and the long,
hot summer season, which, combined
with her heavy rainfall, causes the
humus of her soils to be burned out
very rapidly.
There is probably no one thing that
the soils of the southeast need more
than a sufficient amount of humus. l
was about to say that the only thing
her heavy clay soils need is an abun-
dance of humus, but will qualify the
statement and add to the prescription,
PHOSPHORUS, and some soils may need
an occasional application of potash.
These two things (humus and phos-
phorous), 1 am thoroughly convinced
from a considerable practical farm ex-
perience, will make southern clays
produce almost as virgin soils.
Live Stock to the Rescue.
But our soils have not the humus,
and, while we are supplying it to the
land, we must have continually in
mind that the farmer has a living to
make, and perhaps debts to pay also,
while engaged in rebuilding his soil.
So we must avoid with the greatest
care wastes of all sorts, and this is
the point at which live stock comes to
the aid of the soil builder, allowing
him to utilize all manner of humus-
making plants as stock food before
incorporating them with the soils, thus
receiving twofold profit, we may say.
1t should be of great encouragement
to us that we have in our section such
an array of leguminous plants or
plants that are able to draw free nit
rogen from the air and store it for