Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-08-24
FEEDING THE SOIL.
Careful Farmer Gives It as Much At.
tenton as His Stock.

Today the subject of procuring
supply of manure is concerning the
minds of great many farmers. This
mas given me much worry at times
and is only mastered by hard labor
and study.
Perhaps, however. | have not Sc
cured my manure all in the same way
as most gardeners do. True, all farm
ers and gardeners cannot secure
great arIount of their manure as
have secured much OF mine.
In the first place l have tried to
make as much manure on my farm as
possible, and also tried to save as near
all of it as possible. Also. / have made
a practice of always having some
green growth to turn under at differ
ent times and derived much benefit
from it.
But much of my farm fertility has
come from 25-acre wood land, which
several years ago purchased from a
neighbor. This land is rough and
stony.
The timber is worth very little ex-
cept to keep the land shaded and shed
foliage to rot. The rock on the land is
of a gravelly nature and when it rains
seems to dissolve somewhat and when
mixed with the rich dirt and my farm
soil seems to make an ideal soil.
Here in my country there is much
land that is of this type and tit for
nothing practically. or at least can
not be cultivated.
| bought this piece of land ten years
ago and l have hauled "a great num-
Der of loads of rich dirt and sand
mixed every year and | still have, it
seems, as much to haul as when | first
bought it.
/ gave 500 for the twenty-five acres
at first and / have received that much
back every year in fertility.
However. i do not try to cover my en-
tire farm every year, but rather select a
few acres and have some green crop to
turn under and apply about 20 loads of
this fertility per acre, with only few
loads of barnyard manure, say about
four or five. This is not done to the land
every year. that is to the same land.
select say about five acres each year
TO give a renovation, apply about 1000
loads of this woods dirt and about 10
or 20 loads of barnyard manure. thor
oughly Incorporated with the soil and it
produces good crops.
Some land of course will not need quite
so much of this but most of my land Is
of clay loan and in former years mas
not been very rich and thus II requires
heavy applications to bring it up to
high producing state.
Not only in my country is it possiblek to
have such supplies. but in many places
such sources are available the trouble is
tbpsp sources are 0VeflOOheu.
7 know a few farmers in my neighbour
hood who have bought few cars of
manure and had it shipped from Chicago,
and on their farms there are waste
places that they can get about all the
fertility they need to mix with their soil.
Five wears ago I bought one car my
self and i must say that l have had far
better results from the land that received
the wood leaf mould and dirt than from
the Chicago manure.
In fact, / have never used anything
that gave better immediate results than
does this. / have had to buy a little lime
occa sionally, but never had to buy nitro
gen and never expect to.
In using this in my cold frames, all the
special treatment that it receives is to
thoroughly work it into a good SOIL or
fairly good soil. As to my hot beds. l
use the fire beds and apply the rich dirt
for plgnting the seed.
While am great believer in buying
the proper elements of plant food when
it is necessary, yet / also believe in look
ing around and trying to find some source
near home from which to supply needs
and save money.
I think there should be just as great
s,Sf 5snr~ bn a
in feeding the animals. The cost Of pro-
duction must be considerable B. Rush
ing, in Kansas City Times.