Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-05-05
pAlRYINc AND SOIL FERTILITY

pAlRYINc AND SOIL FERTILITY.
Value Of 4 Herd on a Farm and the
Care of the Fields.
Plant food is stored up in the air
and in the soil. We do not have to
bother ourselves about the plant food
stored in the air. the plants have a
way Of getting that food, the carbon
and oxygen of the air, SO the farmer
does not have to worry about it. Many
Of the plant foods in the soil are very
abundant 90 the farmer does not have
to bother with them, says the Michi-
gan Farmer. We do not talk abo II
iron as q plant food yet plants cannot
live without iron but all soils contain
sufficient iron to grow maximum cropi
tor an indefinite period of time. There
are other elements of plant food which
are not sufficiently abundant in al
soils to maintain profitable agriculture
Tor any considerable length of time.
The three most important of those,
the three essential elements of plant
growth, are nitrogen, rhosphoric acid
and potash, and so when we talk about
fertilizers we always confine ourselves
to the three essential elements of
plant growth, nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash, and the plant gets all
OF these from the soil.
When you grow crops upon the soil.
those crops take out of the soil these
elements. II we sell these crops from
the farm to get our income, we simply
sell the nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
potash from the soil. If we raise hay,
and wheat, and oats, and corn, and
potatoes, and ship them out to feed
the people of the world, we are simply
mining the nitrogen, phosphoric acid
and potash which kind Nature has
deposited In the soil; we are taking 1t
out OF the soil and shipping it away
to feed the millions Of the world
On the other hand, if, instead Of
taking those crops which are produced
here and selling them off the farm,
we first feed those crops to an animal
what is the result? On careful in
vsstigation we find that the animal
does not utilize. does not need, all of
che nitrogen, phosphoric acid sgd
potash which the crop took out of the
soil for its growth and sustenance.
The balance Is a waste product and
can be returned to the soil in the form
Of manure. The percentage of the
plant food which can be returned de-
ponds somewhat upon the age and
nature of the animal to which we
Seed the crops, for instance. young
growing animals. where they are de-
veloping bone and muscular tissue,
take more nitrogen and phosphoric
acid from the soil because they have
to develop bone and tissue, which are
composed largely of these elements
When we grow those animals and fat
ten them on the farm and sell the
carcass of the farm to get our profit,
We sell that much more plant food
than we feed those crops to the dairy
COW and manufacture the animal pro-
duct-milk- butter. because in
that case, practically all of the plant
food the crops took out Of the soil,
which furnished sustenance for the
dairy COW, is returned to the soil be
cause butter-fat Is not plant food.
AS somebody has aptly said, ''but-
ter and sugar are nothing more or less
than crystalized sunshine" It is
carbon. If we grow up the dairy COW
on the farm, keep her there and make
her product into butter. sell nothing
but butter from the farm, and when
the COW passes her period of useful
ness We compost her and put her bones
and fesk back into the soil, we have
not removed anything in the way of
plant food from the soil.
But, besides that, the physical con-
dition of the soil has much to do with
its crop producing power? Many soils
In this state that will not produce pro-
ftable crops today are in that condi-
ton, not from the fact that they do
not contain enough nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash, but from the
fact that poor system of farming has
depleted the soil of vegetable matter
-humus-and the soil has gotten into
poor physical condition. In order to
have q productive soil we must have
vegetable or organic matter in it as
we'll as soluble plant food.
When We grow crops and sell them
from the farm We are removing all the
vegetable matter from the soil and in
q short time We will get that soil in
such condition that we cannot grow
profitable crops because of the fact
that its physical condition does not
make it a congenial home for plants
to grow in, but when we feed those
crops to animals and put the manure
back in the soil We have practically
saved all the organic matter. None
goes off the farm; it is put back into
the soil and maintains its physical
condition. Now il people wi become
interested in dairying there is no rea-
son why the soil cannot be maintained
at its present degree of fertility and
more, 1t can be improved; and what
is the use OF waiting until we cannot
grow good crops on our farms before
W commence this better system OF
agriculture.
In flock of sheep there is always