The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-09-02
LIVE STOCK AID SOIL
Fertility of Land Is Kept Up by
Use of Manure.
History Of Agricultural World Points
Out Farm Animal as lndispens-
able Factor In Economy
of Agriculture.

(By FRIEND c. QUEREAU. Tennessee
Agricultural Experiment Station.)
There are two systems that the
farmer may follow-that in which all
the products of the farm are sold on
the market, and the attempt being
made to keep up the productivity of
the soil by the use of commercial
fertilizers; and that in which the
farm crops are largely fed to live
stock and the soil fertility is kept up
by the returns of manure and by crop
rotation. 1t is a fact easily observed
that on those farms where live stock
Is fed the land is in a much higher
state Of productivity than on farms
where the other system is followed
The reason is that where the crop is
sold on the market all of the plant
food contained in 1t is lost to the
soil, whereas. when the crop Is fed
to live stock only Is to % per cent.
Is lost.
In sections where all crops are sold
the method known as the mining
system"-and the attempt is made to
keep up the land by the use of CON-
mercial fertilizers, the result is al
ways the impoverishment of the soil,
for the reason that It is seldom that
enough commercial fertilizer Is used.
Even were this done, there would be a
deficit in organic matter. which is one
of the most valuable properties of
farm manures, and can be most eco
nomically supplied by them. The
continued use of limited amounts of
commercial fertilizers, with no green
manure, would in the end result in an
impoverished soil.
Not only does the history of the
agricultural world point out the farm
animal as an indispensable factor in
the economy of agriculture, but nature
herself has indicated 1t in the gen.
eral plan of creation. In the begin
ming before man came to introduce
discord into the general fitness of
things, nature has established a great
cycle In which minerals Tor elements),
plants, and other animals bore a
definite relationship to one another.
apparently In the order of their crea-
ton. There were first the elements
contained in minerals, soils, air, and
water. Plants came In due time, and
converted these elements into COM
pounds, which upon the death of the |
plant. underwent disintegration, the |
compounds being broken down into |
the original elements. Later. or con-
temporaneously, animals were intro
duced, which from the compounds of |
the plants built up other and more
compounds. In the operation
Of animals, the waste from the body
tissues and undigested food furnishes
an amour. of plant food, which is re-
turned In the manure, equal to from
rs to IS per cent of that in the orig
lnal material fed to the animal In
this cycle there is no loss, but rather
= gain, for the reason that in all Of
the processes of decay there are in
rolved living organisms, largely tac-
terial, which In their life processes
gather nitrogen from the air and lib
crate by-products that act upon the
soil particles. causing certain por-
ion Of them to become available.
hereby adding to the fertility of the
'oil by an increase in mineral mat
er. Thus when the animal Is sold
III. 1t matters not how long he may
lave been maintained on the farm. no
more plant food will be sold than Is
contained in the gross weight Of the
'ody. These facts establish the abso-
ute necessity of animals in econom-
cal farm practice.
Good farming presupposes the
and increase of soil fer
ility. and this cannot be accomplished ,
n the most economical way by de- !
'ending wholly upon commercial fer
liners. In fact, commercial fertiliz- ,
rs cannot be supplied probably to
many farm crops in sufficient quanti- I
les to replace the fertility sold from :
be farm by the direct method of mar >
citing crops. On the other hand. \
egetable matter is fundamental in :
God farm practice, and unless green \
rops are plowed under, which in most /
asses can be more proftably fed to 3
We stock, and the manure returned. !,
here follows serious depletion of 4
Dill fertility from loss of nitrogen, by =
OF bacteria and other lower h
'rma Of life dependent upon vege- :