Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1911-09-08
TO MAINTAIN FERTILITY
Temperature. Rain, Plant Food Among
the Important Factors in Crop
Producing ertilizers
Manures

MdnuTeS.
BY fertility of the soil is meant its
capacity for the production of crops,
and 1t Is as much the duty of the
farmer to maintain this capacity of
his soil as for the manufacturer to
maintain the producing power of his
factory, Says a contributor to the
American Cultivator There are
number of factors which determine
the crop producing power of the soil,
of which the most important are;
Temperature, rainfall, the physical
condition and the presence or alb
sence of sufficient supply of avail
able plant food. OF these the first
two may be considered as being be-
yond the control of the farmer to a
great extent, but the last two are
largely within his control and upon a
proper regulation of these two factors
depends the maintenance of the fertil-
ity.
1t is a matter of common experience
that continuous cropping of "a soil
gradually reduces the yield, which is
due largely to the withdrawal of plant
food by the crop grown. Plant food
exists in the soil in two forms: That
which is available or soluble in water,
and that which is unavailable or insol-
uble, and it is upon the former that
the plant food depends, for lis sus-
tenance. The ratio of the available
to the unavailable varies greatly with
different soils, but there is nearly al
ways a great preponderance of the
latter, which is useless to the plant
until it has been changed to a col
uble form and may be called poten-
tial fertility.
One of the great factors then in
maintaining the crop producing power
of the soil is to guard as much as pos
sible against loss of these available
plant foods and to supply in some
manner that which is lost. To ac.
complish this some means must be de
vised for converting the unavailable
or potential plant food into the avail
able form, Or 1t must be derived from
some source entirely outside the sail
Fortunately we have, with legumin
Gus plants, means of fixing the FREE
nitrogen of the air SO that it may b'
used by succeeding crops and thus
maintain the balance of nitrogen
There is, however, no such means 70
supplying deficiency of phosphorus
acid or potash. The practice of fol
lowing does convert some potash ant
phosphoric acid from the insoluble III
the soluble form by exposing the par
ticles of soil to the weathering actor
OF atmospheric agencies, but this pro
cess is exceedingly slow and waste
full, due to more or less teaching ou
OF the soluable materials.
A striking example of the ineffi
cheney of this practice is found i
northwestern wheat countries, wher
summer following has been general
followed. In the older parts of thi
region the yields of wheat On land O
great natural fertility have gradual
decreased from as much as 35 bushel
an acre to as little as Is bushels a.
acre.
Losses of fertilizing ingredients i
pounds are shown in the following ia
BILE
Pot Phos Nitro
ash acid ger
All grain farming 1920 246O $50
Mixed grain and
general farming. .:l047 1o0S u 25g
this table, are of course, due to tn
fact that in the case of all grain farm
ing, large proportion of the crop
sold, while with dairy farming grea
part is returned to the land in tn
form of manure
Estimating the value of these cor
stituents at approximately their pre-
ent prices, We find that in the frs
case there has been a loss of $1164 i
plant food; in the second, $4916O, an
in the third, $121.SO, Or a loss pc
acre of 1888, 1907 and 76 cents re
spectively. This means that with tn
systems of farming indicated the Ian
actually depreciates in value to thi
amount unless the loss is in some wa
made up. Leaving out of account tn
nitrogen, which, it may be assumed
will be supplied wholly or in part b
leguminous plants, the deficiency i
acres would require the annual appl
cation of about 10 tons of a mxtur
containing 10 IL per cent potash an
IL per cent phosphoric acid 70
all grain farming, six tons of a mi,
ture containing 12 per cent potas
and 1-2 per cent phosphoric acid TO
mixed farming, and 10 pounds mt
rate of potash for dairy farming. !
is only by careful attention to tn
points mentioned that the farmer ca
hope to maintain the fertility of hi
soil, which it should be his duty an,
aim to do as conserving the creates
natural resources of the nation.
The Ohio experiment station ha
carried on several series of expert
ments in the use of fertilizers and ma
nures on crops grown in systematic
rotations. In one of these expert
ments, located on the farm of tn,
main station at Wooster, on a sol
peculiarly responsive to the action o
fertilizers and manure, hire has beef
produced from one of the treatments
a 14-year average increase to the val
ne of about $3.50 an acre annually il
arotation of corn, oats, wheat, clover
and timothy The cost of the fertili
zer producing this increase ha.
amounted to $23 for each five-year 70
tation, or little more than $3.50 an
nually, thus leaving net profit of s.
an acre, air enough to pay the renla
of the land. know of no similar test
in which results equal to this have
been attained for SO long a period
They Tried Another Kind.
1t was Sunday evening and there