The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-07-31

unlock the plant food that is locked
dp and unavailable In the soil.
Cheap Fcrti!'zcr.
~ am no chemist. nothing but aa
ordinary farmer but my other habit.
are good. From the most careful Hp
uring / could dc. ana from the best
authorities ! could find, was plowius
Gown twenty dollars worth Of nitro
cen, pota7h and phosphoric acid to the
acre-and the cost to me was but 50
cents. Later, when I used the cow
horn turnip and dwarf Essex rape. /
brCugh. the cost down to 80 cents per
acre.
That field was sown broa least to
oats, put In with the harrow withuu.
any commercial fertilizer or barnyard
manure, for the first time on that OLD
Worn-out farm in tnc OF the driost
SEASONS wc ever had in central penn
fNivanil; and, when the binder WAS
cutting that 0Jt" we had a photograph
takcn of H.
The same season, on the fourth day
of June. we took a photograph Of .
rcd clly"r ncld that was - inches
hgh-the result OF moisture ana plant
food created and released with yegc-
table matter and humus.
1T has been shown that soil that is
flled with jccoycd vegetable mattcr
nd humus, from one crop of crimson
clover plpwcd down, win hold nifty
IONS more water to the acre than soil
that is not IT you figure how murh
water you must have to raise crop
cf corn. oats, potatoes. hay. etc. YOU
will see the value of land that has the
pOworto hold water
I'VE had a farmer I'm Pennsylvania
who got his farm into such condi-
tion that he said spring rains were "a
nuisance.
II have watched the soil untl !
make this assertions: that soil that is
Filled With decaycd vegetable mattes
and humus i0 warmer In the winter
time. cooler in summer time. wettcr
in dry weather and drier'n wet wealth
en-, an H. ffH .W g",Hr". "d
"At Somerset. Pa. on December 4.
1907. when made this assertion. med
by tho dozen Immediately opposed my
statement. by saying that such land
could not be dricr in wet Weather.
Never was / driven into a closer
corner / thought and thought, in or
der 10 ind an illustration that would
mako my idea clear To them, aud thai
ould back MP my assertion. At last
I selected two Of the leaders in the
opposition. and put ono of the follow
ing questions to each: I asked the first
man TO suppose a level ton-aCrc field,
the one half of which had had Ncge-
table matter and humus worked into
II. and the other half # which had
been left untrcated. This being done.
and the field plowed. asked him 30
suppose, further, that rain should fan
upon the whole field from Monday
tnul Friday, and that on that day h.
should take some other man to an
elevated place aud ask him to say
which half Of the field was the drier
! then asked him 10 tell me what this
other mans reply was likely tu be. lie
hung his head moment and then
confessed that in his opinion the man
would select that half which had hal
the vegetable matter aud humus work
ed into it. then turned To the other
leader In the audience, aud spoke to
hun as follows: If you take two
three gallon buckets, ana put two gal
Ions of soil filed with vegetable mat
ter and humus into ono of them, and
two gallons of soil devoid Of 1t into
the other. then pour one gallon of
water into each bucket which lot az
soil would appear To be the dricr p
He paused, then said that the soil
having vegetable matter and humus
in it would be the dricr. The reply of
either could not have been otherwise.
and, therefore, proved my assertion.
Balanced Ration.
Every plant needs the balanced
ration as well as the COW that gives
milk or the hen thai lays eggs The
dairyman will go into the stable, look
the cows in the face, aud say 4 Will
make you give milk and puts "A bd'-
anced ration in their trough for that
purpose A chicken man viii figure
cut what Il takes To make an egg,