Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-08-10
LIVE STOCK AID SOIL
Fertility Of Land Is Kept Up by
Use of Manure.
History Of Agricultural World Points
Out Farm Animal as IndIspens-
able Factor In Economy
Of Agriculture.
(By FRIEND c. QUEREAU, Tennessee
ArrIcl1ltnral Exnnrlnnent Station

lby Z. lenneS5ee
Agricultural Experiment Statlon.)
There are two systems that the
farmer may follow-that in which all
the products of the farm are sold on
the market, and the attempt being
made to keep up the productivity Of
the soil by the use Of commercial
fertilizers; and that in which the
farm crops are largely fed to live
stock and the soil fertility is kept up
by the returns Of manure and by crop
rotation. 1t is a fact easily observed
that on those farms where live stock
Is fed the land Is in a much higher
state of productivity than on farms
khere the other system Is followed.
Ehe reason Is that where the crop is
sold on the market all Of the plant
Food contained in 1t is lost to the
soil, whereas, when the crop Is fed
to live stock only 10 to 25 per cent,
Is lost.
In sections where all crops are sold
the method known as the mining
system"-and the attempt is made to
keep up the land by the use Of COM
mercial fertilizers, the result Is al
ways the impoverishment of the soil,
for the reason that 1t is seldom that
enough commercial fertilizer is used.
Even were this done, there would be a
deficit in organic matter, which is one
Of the most valuable properties Of
farm manures, and can be most eco
nomically supplied by them. The
continued use of limited amounts of
commercial fertilizers, with no green
manure, would in the end result in an
impoverished soil.
Not only does the history Of the
agricultural world point out the farm
animal as an indispensable factor in
the economy of agriculture, but nature
herself has indicated 1t in the gen
eral plan Of creation. In the begin
ming before mar came to introduce
discord into the general fitness of
things, nature has established a great
cycle in which minerals Tor elements)
plants, and other animals bore a
definite relationship to one another,
apparently in the order Of their crea-
ton. There were first the elements
contained in minerals, soils, air, and
water. Plants came in due time, and
converted these elements into COM
pounds, which upon the death of the
plant, underwent disintegration, the
compounds being broken down into
the original elements. Later, or con-
temporaneously, animals were intro
duced, which from the compounds of
the plants built up other and more
complex compounds. In the operation
Of animals, the waste from the body
tissues and undigested food furnishes
an amour Of plant food, which is re-
turned In the manure, equal to from
rs to IS per cent. Of that In the orig
inal material fed to the animal. In
this cycle there is no loss, but rather
a gain, for the reason that In all of
the processes of decay there are IN
volved living organisms, largely bac-
terial, which in their life processes
gather nitrogen from the air and lib
crate %by-products that act upon the
soil particles, causing a certain por-
ton of them to become available,
thereby adding to the fertility Of the
soil by an increase in mineral mat
ter. Thus when the animal Is sold
off, 1t matters not how long he may
have been maintained on the farm, no
more plant food will be sold than is
contained in the gross weight Of the
body. These facts establish the abso-
Lutte necessity Of animals in econom-
ical farm practice.
Good farming presupposes the
maintenance and increase of soil fer
tility, and this cannot be accomplished
in the most economical way by de-
pending wholly upon commercial fer
tilizers. In fact, commercial fertiliz-
ers cannot be supplied probably to
many farm crops in sufficient quaint
ties to replace the fertility sold from
the farm by the direct method of mar
keting crops. On the other hand,
vegetable matter Is fundamental in
good farm practice, and unless green
crops are plowed under, which in most
cases can be o. profltably fed to
live stock, and the manure returned,
there follows a serious depletion Of
soil fertility from loss Of nitrogen, by
reduction Of bacteria and other lower
forms of life dependent upon yege-