The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-07-24

@&I4E& saESfsSSSS ing pleasant letter
tn&kssG7s&s EasAssss:SS from Not, toway
w. r.. Massey. county is in
This line: Your article in The Times
Dispatch Of the Sd in witch you reveal
{: reader who has carefully read after
laI only to discover that YOU are not
III favor Of fertilizers, brings to my
mind your notes in another paper,
under the head OF Uammcring 1t In
notice that YOU advocate pot
ash FOR gray land. All my sandy land
is underlaid with red clay within
foot or fourteen inches. ! can bring
up the red with deep furrow on most
of II. ana II then makes very friable
soil, but still poor DO YOU think that
kind needs potash? ! had an expert
ence with crimson clover that may he
Of interest | sowed IL on quite sandy
land In the corn at last working the
middle OF July, and the next year had
fine stand. which lief: TO ripen for
seed a dashing rain came and hulled
il standing. All right. | said. YOU can
Just reseed Yourself and X did like
the hair on dog. took my Wife out
several times in u buggy. and were
highly elated over ,he fine stand, and
the respect for anothe.' crop We
wen; out once too often. for after il
Was az inch or SO hisn IT totally dis
appeared, and / have been told that It
was killed by the hot sun, though 1t
stood in the stubble IL had grown on
and that had disked and narrowed
after the rain beat the seed off. But
IL went of like a flash. and We were
sadly disappointed.
Have you had any experience with
drains made by laying planks like an
inverted V, in trenches instead of tile?
What kind of wood is best" i am told
that pine Will do when buried three
feet underground. have some land
that needs draining badly, but can get
no tiles in Virginia"
Your rNDcrienCc in tho rpSecdir1s M
crimson clover is very like many in
stances / have observed In fact
have never seen complete success
from self seeded crimson clover II
rarely lives ii ii terminates that early
in the season. Now as to the board
drains The N-shRpcd drain will not
last the edges OF the plank sink into
the soil and the drain is chokcd. But
plank six inches wide nailed together
in a continuous box of four sides will
answer very well. | know drains made
in this way that have been doing good
service for thirty years. and they are
pine planks Buried in the soil, any
lumber VIII last The planks are nailed
together, breaking joints on opposite
sides alternately, and YOU need not
Gear that the water Will not get into
them. | think ii Will pay to use some
potash on your soil.
Lime md Peanuts.
viii "a TOP dressing OF limo be of
amy benefit to peanuts in hloom?" Like
some others you seem to think that
lime is fertilizer You do not say
what fertilizer you used on the pea
nuts an planting and IL they need
anything, il is phosphoric acid and
potash rather than lime. We use lime
Tor the purpose Of swcctcnnC the soil,
and hence making il more favora Bile
to leEumc crops like peanuts. and limo
does not release potash that may be in
The soil in an insoluhle state. But most
OF our best peanut soils are deficient
ir potash, and i; is the deficiency of
potash that causes pops. Give the pea
nuts, ii needed, q good top dressing of
acid phosphate and potash, unless YOU
used these literally at planting time
The LcEumcS.
There seems to bc great lack of
comprehension among farmers as TO
what constitutes What we call lcgunlc
plant These are the plants that are
found in The botanical order lcEum-
mosaic because they bear their seeds
in pods or legUmcs. All of this order
of plants have certain microscopic
plants OF bacteria that live parasitically
ON their roots. iiut the parasitisn is
not harmful, since il is through these
bacteria that the plant il enabled 10
oXdi2c Tie frcG. aitroEen in the air.
where IL is gasv;'nd 10 put the com
hucd nitrogen as y nitrate in the soil,
where IL is taken up by the lcgumcs.
and by whatever plant may be asso-
ciated with them. This ability 20 get
the costly nitrogen for us, while al the
same time providing q large amount Of
organic matter gives the lcgume plants
q great advantage over the other
classes OF plants which when used as
green manure. simply return to the soil
the nitrogen they got from II and make
no increase i'll the amount Therefore,
when ] am asked about turning under
buckWheat and rye or other vegetation,
simply have 10 say the soil gains