The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1911-03-01

Southern Farmcrs-PlOw Land Into
Beds and Work Down With Har-
rows.
1t had been our desire, while dis
cussing general farm management,
to devote one or two articles to the
question Of fences, their value and
cost; but it seems to be more in
keeping with the spirit of "timeli-
ness" which we hope to make a
prominent feature of these articles, to
say something just at this time about
preparing the land for the spring
crops. During February rains are
apt to interfere more or less with field
work; but whenever the soil is in
anything like satisfactory condition
any unbroken land intended for spring
crops should be plowed. With this
early breaking there will be less
temptation to use fire for getting rid
Of grass, stalks and other materials on
the land, which when turned under
rot and form humus, So much need
ed by practically all our soils. Even
If these materials can be only partially
covered, and a second plowing is nee
essary to thoroughly mix them with
the SOIL it will pay to go to this or
other extra trouble, rather than burn
them.
Keep the Fire Out OF the Fields.
We feel certain that those who
still use fire for cleaning the fields
OF vegetable matter, which might be
plowed under, do not fully appreci-
ate the value of any humus-forming
materials to our soils. 1t is of
| course, true that less of these ma
terials are now burned than former
ly, but the practice is yet much too
common. Last February the writer
rode across one of the States in our
| territory, between dark and mid
night. and had he not been familiar
with the habits of the Southern
farmer ne might have thought lhat
vas army with MS camp Gre, ex-
yeHde, entirely crroea the S,.lf, SO
consto IS Wer. 'l. ares "a "i,~
i''m .nD 90. "...o-s ..I.s 1~..L-
erateiy set for the purpose Of de-
| stroying the greatest Of all needs of
these soils 1t is true that when
these humus-forming materials are
abundant and only one-horse plows
available for breaking the land, turn
them under and properly mixing
them with the soil, so that they will
| not seriously interfere with the cul-
tivation OF the crops, becomes a diff
cult problem. This. we believe, is
one Of the greatest objections to the
onehorse plow and one of the great
| est obstacles to successful one horse
| farming. But If more early break
ing were done, and the land plowed
a second time If nece ssary, there
would be less difficulty in disposing
Of the stalks and grass without the
| use OF fire. AS recently published
in The Progressive Farmer, the
State Chemist of North Carolina, DR..
| B. w. Kilgore, asserts that in the
production of 500 pounds Of lint cot
ton, the leaves. stalks, bolls and roots
Of the cotton plants weight around
3,145 pounds and contain 67.7
| pounds of nitrogen. All Of this nj
trogen and ton and a half of hu-
| mus-forming materials are destroyed,
when all these materials are burned
off the land.
Turning Nitrogen and Buying 1t.
Let us look a little further and
get an idea of the loss of nitrogen
when corn-stalks and grass are de-
stroyed. When % bushels Of corn
Is grown in the South from 1000 to
| 5000 pounds of stalks, leaves and
shucks are produced. About 60 per
cent Of this is stalks, 80 per cent
leaves and 10 per cent shucks, so
that we can safely state that around
one ton of material is usually left in
the field when 25 bushels Of corn are
grown in the South. How much nj
trogeE does this material contain Z?
Definite figures can not be given; but
an approximation can be made.
Henry in his Feeds and Feeding"
states that there are eos
pounds of nitrogen in 1000 pounds
or stover; but this would mean
that it contains 6.5 per cent of
protein, whereas, this same author
states in another article, that corn
stoVer contains 3.S per cent of