The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1913-02-21
DAIRYING HELPS AGRICULTURE
Good Herd Of Dairy Cows Use Portion
Of Crops Only and Return Sixty
Per Cent. Back to Soil

An analyses of the soils of Washing
| ton to determine the proportion of the
plant food chemical elements that it
contains, made by the agricultural ex-
pertinent station at Pullman, shows
that most of the eastern Washington
soils are well supplied with lime, pot
ash and phOsphOric acid and deficient
in nitrogen, or humus.
A table, giving the average amount
in pounds of the several elements per
acre of top foot of soil, credits the
river benches of this county with 49,
$50 pounds of lime, 1870 pounds of
potash, 1850 pounds of phosphoric
acid and 2,770 pounds of nitrogen.
Another table, showing the rating of
soils according to the amounts of these
food plant elements present, gives the
following figures:
LIME appearing In clay soil: Poor
below 1000; medium, 1000 to 10000;
normal, 10000 to 10000; good, 10000
to 100000; rich, above 10000.
LIME appearing In sandy loan soil:
Poor, below 1000; medium, 1000 to
1000; normal, 1000 to 5000; good,
5000 to 10000; rich above 10000.
POTASH found In clay sOil:. Poor,
below 1000; medium, 1000 to 5000;
normal, 5000 to 10000; good, 10000
to $4,000; rich, above 10000.
PHOSPHORIC ACID found in clay
soil: Poor, below 1000; medium, 1000
to 1000; normal, 1000 to 5000; good,
5000 to'12.0O0; rich, above 10000.
NITROGEN in clay soil: Poor, be-
low 1000; medium 1000 to 1900; nor
NAL, 1000 to 5000; good, 5000 to
10000; rich above 10000.
The bulletin also gives in tabular
form the amount of each element TAX
en- from the soil by different crops.
For example, so bushel wheat crop
takes from an acre of soil 40 pounds of
potash, 30 pounds of phosphoric acid
and 100 pounds of nitrogen. while a.
crop of 600 boxes of apples takes from
an acre 56 pounds of potash, IL pounds
Of phOsphOric acid and Al pounds of
nitrogen.
Commenting on the deficiency In
hunus ,~of. Washinet0n-sols,7, T4UHruy-
Dairynan, in a recent issue, says:
I'm the dry farming sections of the
West one of the chief DEFICIENCIES of
the soil is humus. This fact has not
been generally recognized by the far
mers in these sections.
at has long been the custom to
burn the stubble or other material in
order to get clean surface and make
the ordinary cultivation of the soil
easier. One thing that lead to this
practice was the fear that through
plowing under straw, stubbles, weeds
etc, the soil would more quickly dry
and crops would burn out" The
farmers are afraid to put barnyard
manure on the land for the same rea-
son.
This fear is not held by Professor
r. w. Thatcher, director of the Wash
ingtOn State Experiment Station. In
bulletin 105, The Nitrogen and HUI
mus Problem in Dry Farming, he
says:
Ion dry-farming lands whose chief
characteristic is deficiency in humus
and nitrogen, barn manure is of excep-.
tiOnally high value as soil renovator
Every available ton of manure should
be carefully husbanded and utilized by
plowing deeply into the land after first
scattering it on the surface and disc
ing thoroughly. The supply of manure
should be increased as largely as pos
sible by feeding livestock and the
methods of feeding will be determined
by local conditions, but the value of
the manure in adding to the perma-
nent fertility of the soil should al
ways lead the owner of dry-farming
lands to consider more than tempor-
ary market fluctuations in determin-
ing whether to continue or inaugurate
feeding systems."'
This statement is Fundamentally
true The hope of success in the dry
farming regions lies in livestock. Dairy
farming offers one of the best means
Of making agriculture permanent in
these regions. A herd of good dairy
cows will utilize portion of the crops
and return sixty per cent. back to the
coil. The dairy herd will furnish a
steady income in hard cash and make
it possible for men to build homes and
make prosperous many regions that
have been famous as wheat producing
sections"