The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920, 1910-02-26

restoration of the new-ground conditions and we
can restore this only by good farming, and 1t Is
not good farming to be ever depending on the
fertilizer sack for our sale crops. The money
that farmer pays for ton of the poor 80
would buy a great deal more of acid phosphate
or basic Stag and this used on the peas or clover
would eventually give him greater profit than the
2-S-2 used to make little more cotton
Men write to me asking what and how much
fertilizer to use their land and 1t always seems
to me that it is pure agricultural quackery to tell
them for what man needs depends on the needs
of his soil, and | cannot possibly know the needs
of every soil in the South. and can only assume
that their land needs everything in the list, and
may be advising them to use what they do not
need Then some ask to know where to have
their soil analysed so TO find out what IL needs
They do not understand that an analysis cannot
help them, for the analysis may show that there
is plenty of plant food in the soil, and yet they
know that it is unproductive. for 1t Is locked up
naturally And 1t is we'll that 1t is locked up and
only slowly available. or 1t would have all been
used up in the wasteful farming of the past.
The only way to find out the special needs OF
your soil is to study it in plots with different fer
tilizer applications giving the plots the plant food
elements alone and in different combinations and
patiently observing the results for several years
as compared with plots that receive no fertilizer
In fact, the only man who can tell what your
soil needs is you. And on farm OF zoo acres
almost everywhere there are probably a dozen
different soils with different needs.
But one thing we all know, and this Is that
wherever we spread stable manure there is an i'm
provement in the crops. This of course. is more
evident the upland soils that have been
down in humus for the lowlands and the reclaim
ed swamp soils usually have plenty OF potential
nitrogen and need. mainly phosphorus and pot
ash, while the uplands need humus-making organ
ic matter that the manure supplies.
And right there is the crucial point in the de-
probation of our Southern soils. the everlasting
| clean cropping and depending on fertilizers and
| the neglect of stock feeding. We met con-
tinually by the statement that there is no profit
in feeding cattle II one feed his forage and
cottonseed meal 10 cattle and get for them merely
what he could sell the forage for on the market
he has made profit that hardly be accurately
measured, for he gets the manure that will be of
intellectually benefit to his land than the
same money value in commercial fertilizers
The only hope for the permanent upbuildlng
OF our Southern lands Is through good rotatiye
farming and the feeding of live stock We can
not afford to keep on In the old way scratching
the soil and dribbng a little poor fertilizer while
the soil grows poorer and poorer. We must re-
store the humus in economical and business
like way, and cannot afford to continue to
ignore cattle that are the most effective means
towards this humus restoration. The day is fast
approaching in the South when a man who has
farmed his land for years. and still admits II IA
poor, will be looked upon a poor citizen a man
who fails in his duty TO God and his country We
have gone fertilizer-crazy and need TO make our
farms sanatoria for recovery.