The Ward County independent. [volume] (Minot, Ward County, N.D.) 1902-1965, 1913-12-25
SAVING THE FERTILITY
Valuable Manurial Constituents
in All Farm Products.
II 10 Very Evident That the Dairy
Farmer Sells Less Fertilizer Than
the One Who Raises Grain
Don't 1urn Straw.

Try j. W NICE. Professor OF Asrtcu'-
tural Chemistry North Dakota Az
ricultural Cplleee)
A writer in the Technical World
Magazine recently wrote under, he
title OF "A Grain of Gold From a Ton
of Dust" that, as he was making a
trip through the ore.house OF Utah
copper mine. the engineer with him
STOPPED suddenly at table, pointed
70 the lower right hand corner, and
exclaimed: See that tiny yellow
streak? Wait! He Shut OF the We
ter and the streak became more visi.
bic Then ne ran his finger tip along
il and held it up coated with very
.nre gold dust. Just about quarters
worth" he laughed. That's the aver
age We get from every ton Of ore that
goes through here II helps a little
on the expense account OF course. but
not much. Still it means four thous-
and dollars ($4,O0O.00) a day." And
that ore-house was extracting $4,000
worth Of copper and silver daily. The
gold was merely incidental, a by
product. but worth while
There is scarcely a farm product
placed on the market or kept on the
farm that is not worth at least fifty
cents ton for the manurial cOnsti-
tuents in It, Take the case Of wheat.
The grain has twenty-five cents worth
VI fertility in every hushel. or $40
worth in ton The straw contains
mer Eas 100 acres Of wheat and raises
1900 bushels of grain and 100 tons of
straw. He sells in the grain $40
worth OF fertility for which he re-
ceives no return He has left in the
straw 500 worth OF fertility from
which he may or may not recei~e
some return. depending upon his abil-
e ity aid foresightedness. In 1911 there
xere 10000 900 bushels of wheat rails
ed in North Dakota. for which the far,
lners received sG5,D0G.00N. Accom-
panying this immense crop there were
probably s.G50.0co tons OF straw Of
unknown value. Sold in the grain
there was $l6.0Oo,GOo worth of fertil-
its; left in the straw was $7665,0OO
worth of fertility. In other words
there was approximately half as much
,nanurial value in the straw as in the
grain. How many farmers thought
that straw of enough va ne to return
10 the sol9 How maEs' realized the
TACT that there was enough potential
fertility stored In that material to
raise 36.00OO00 bushels OF wheat in
subsequent years? How many appre-
ciated the Importance of saving every
item, small rs it might be, for the
maintenance of successful agricul.
ture!
There are a number of chemical
substances which are absolutely neces-
sary for plant life; three of these are
apt to be deficient in soil They
are nitrogen, phosphorus, and potas.
SUM. II any one of these or any com
0ination OF them is absent from soil
they must be added before crop can
be raised. They must then be pur.
chased in the form OF fertilizers, nj,
trogen costing Is cents a pound. phos.
Dhorus IL cents, and potassium 6
cents. II in some cases these ele-
ments have to be purchased before
crop can be raised, then in other cases
their presence in the soil means SO
much Of the farmers capital, and
their presence in farm commodities
means so mNch loss, if those commodi.
ties are sold from the faNn, or SO
much possible available fertility in
the products kept on the farm, if tie
iarmS is willing to save them and
return <lem to the soil
For the sake OF presenting this mat
Ter simply let ~ take ten substances
produced on the farm. We will place
them upon the same comparative ba-
sis of 10 0pound quantities We will
secure the sum OF the fertility consti
fuents nitrogen, phosphorus and po
tassium In these 100 pounds and the
money value OF these substances.
What is the result? In every pound OF
fat cattle there are contained 80
pounds of fertility, worth 46.5c;
wheat grain, 2.79 pounds. worth 37.Oc;
corn grain, 2.2S pound. worth 3O.Oc;
potato tubers. o84 pounds, worth SEC;
butter, 0.l9 pound, worth &c: cattle
manure. O.92 pound, worth 10.1c:
wheat straw. LOT pounds, worth 11.3c;
corn stalks, 1.6S pounds, worth 1890;
potato stalks and leaves. 1.O4 pounds,
worth 1900; buttermilk 06e pound,
worth 9.0c.
1t makes no difference whether the
farmer practices diversified farming,
crop rotation or single cropping, he
Is selling fertility in every case II
cannot be helped. there is no method
of abstractins the manurial consti,
tuents from product before it is sold.
1t is very evident. however that the
dairy farmer sells less fertility than
the grain farmer. II is also evident
that the products left on the farm
have a greater value in some cases
than the products sold. 1t is possible
to save every pound of fertility in
these by-products and return them to
the soil either through feeding to ami