Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-03-17
farm and fireside.
NATURES NITROGEN
Nourishes the Crops Most Effectively
More Humus In the Soil.

More Humus In tho Soil.
While standing upon the streets or
Greenwood last week I, together with
number of others. was attracted to
the depot by the continuous blowing
Of an engine whistle. When the train
pulled up it proved to be a solid train
of twenty cars Of fertilizer shipped
| by one fertilizer manufacturer to
single firm in Greenwood. On the
side of each car was flaming placard
stating the name Of the shipment and
consignee. 1t was a good advertis-
ing scheme: but when one comes to
think of 1t seriously, one wonders
what sort of advertisement this would
be for the surrounding country to a
stranger from, say the middle western
states. Would the fact that fertilizers
are bought in such quantities and are
so necessary for the soils that one
firm in a city the size of Greenwood
is warranted in buying this material,
not in car loads, but in train loads.
prove a very strong advertisement as
to the fertility of the soils Of the COM
munity or awaken in him desire to
invest money in those soils for farm
ing purposes?
1 confess that on me this train load
Of fertilizer made rather sad i'm
preston To me 1t meant that al
ready the farmers who were buying
that fertilizer had incurred a debt of
between $4,000 and $4,000, for this
would be a conservative estimate of
the value of the notes that will be
given before this train load Of fer
tilizers reaches the soil. And this debt
is incurred even before the seed OF
that crop are placed in the ground.
1 did not see the fertilizer, but ven-
ture to say that over half Of the value
of that train load was for nitrogen,
and I could not but wonder what
different story there would be in the
future If, instead of the $4,000 or
SIS, 900 that the nitrogen on that train
cost in fertilizers, this amount of
money had been represented by the
seed of some of the legumes-say
cowpeas or soy beans-to be planted
for the purpose of gathering nitrogen
from the atmosphere.
Five thousand dollars invested in
cowpeas would buy at least 1866
bushels of peas. Two bushels Of peas
sown upon moderately good land, es-
pecially if the phosphoric acid and
potash that were in that train were
added, would gather as much nitro
gen from the air as would be con-
tanned in 500 pounds Of cotton seed
meal and would therefore add to the
soil. even If turned directly into it,
not less than $40 worth of nitrogen,
besides returning the phosphoric acid
and potash. Or, to put it differently,
the $4,000 spent for nitrogen in this
train load of fertilizer, if expended for
peas, would have produced $4,000
worth Of nitrogen.
But this Is taking a very narrow
view of 1t and is going upon the theory
that our farmers are going to be so
Short-sighted as to be content with
the single profit from the growing of
peas-the profit of the value of those
peavines for fertilizer alone. 1 feel
confident that with the amount OF
valuable feed that the peas would
make it would be very little while,
if they have not already done so, un-
would provide themselves with suffi-
cient live stock to eat up this feed.
With such live stock the story would
have been about as follows: The hay
from an acre Of such peas would have
been easily worth $40 as feed. AS
there were enough peas to plant 500
acres. then there would have been
raised $4,000 worth Of feed. Since
we would still recover practically all
of the fertilizer from the peas in the
manure; then we should add to this
the value of the nitrogen in the peas
or $4,000, and so half of the money
that was spent for this train load Of
fertilizer, $4,000, if invested in peas.
would have brought into the COM
munity $4,000, and the land would
have been in better condition than it
was at the beginning. Can as much
be expected of the fertilizer?
OF course, some one may say that
! am figuring from pure theory, and
doubtless in actual practice the story
would not be so large; but after all is
said and done the fact remains in
large type that half the money value
of this train load Of fertilizer in
vested in pea seed and the seed
properly sown and used, would bring
much better returns. All of which
goes to prove that our farmers must
learn to raise q crop of nitrogen If
they want to reap the greatest rewards
from their labor.-D. y. Barrow in
Progressive Farmer