Pocahontas star herald., 1911-07-21
SOW RYE and
VETCH IN COTTON


many years. l was commonly
thought that cotton removed large
amounts of the plant food elements
from the soil and that this decline
in productiveness was due to the re-
sulting decrease in fertility of the
soil. Now however, it is known
that the decline IN productiyeness
is only partly due to the removal OF
plant food materials from the soil
by the cotton, but that it is more
largely due to the manner of culn-
vation. A brief consideration OF
some of these causes may prove OF
value in deciding upon a means for
overcoming them.
The exhaustion of the soil by
cotton culture is due very largely to
the fact that the soil lies bare for a
large part of the year, rrther than
to the amount of plant food remov-
ed by the cotton. 1t has been
shown "that even when the seed is
taken away along with the lint,
cotton still removes smaller amounts
of fertilizing materials from the
soil than either oats or corn. 1t is
an important fact that the lint and
the oil, whose fertilizing constitu-
ents alone are necessarily perma-
nently lost to the farm contain CON-
paratively insignificant amounts of
these constituents. If, therefore,
the roots, stems, leaves, etc., are
turned under, and the hulls and
meal usg1oP the farm upon which
the cotton was grown, cotton is the
least exhaustive of the staple crops
to the soil.
Why then, do lands detoriate SC
rapidly when planted year after
year to cotton? This resolves it.
self into question of the effeef- u
leaving land bare during the great
er part of the year. Cotton de-
mands clean cultivation. Even
during the greater part of the crop
is growing the soil is practically
bare and in the best of condition
for washing away III case of heavy
rains. 1t is only from July to Sep.
tember that the cotton crop offers
any protection whatever to the soil.
Therefore for ten months in the
year cotton land Is practically bare.
: 1t has been pointed out that when
! the and is bare it is subject to the
action of many deleterious agencies
such as; washing of the soil, leach
, ing of the most expensive of the
plant food elements from the soil,
and the destr uction of good tilth.
The soil washes away because there
is nothing to hold it. The nitrate'
leach out because there is no croI
to take them mp when they are
are formed. Good tilth is destroy
ed because the rains bread up thu
granular arrangement Of the sol
particles and allows those particles
to ran together and pack into a
hard mess when they are dry.
In the sowing of rye at the last
cultivation of the cotton the farmer
has most effective means of pre-
venting these bad results. + h
roots of rye, very numerous and
fine, produce net work Throughout
the entire surface soil. This net
work of rye roots is one of the best
of soil binders and is most effec
tive in preventing washing. As
has been pointed out before, the
growing crop takes up the nltrates
before they can be leached out,
And finally we find that the numer-
Gus fine roots leave it open and in
the finest of working condition.
Rye sown in August makes 0
good winter grazing crop and by
spring it will be ready to turn IN,
der as one of the best green manure
crops. Vetch should be sown will
rye. While it makes Slow growtl
during the fall it begins a rapic
growth in the winter and earl;
spring months. Vetch's grea
value lies in the fact that its root
secures nitrogen from the air an,
adds 1t to the soil for the future us