Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1913-05-16

you. 1t is a big subject and in the short
talk which I shall give tonight I can hope
only to touch a few high points and give
a few suggestions which may be usefui
10 yon who are engaged in grain deanhs
.as Well as to the growers of grain.
1T is an old saying that you cannot
save your cake and eat It," but Secretary
Wells has given me the pleasant task OF
proving that this may be done: that we
may conserve the soil and use 1t ana thae
We may use the crop and save 1t.
The literal meaning of CONSERVE" is TO
save. to preserve. to keep unchanged. but
We are using the word today In a much
more liberal sense. Soil conservation does
not mean saving the soil intact. ftatner
it means a larger use of the SOIL, by m
creasing crop yields without decreasing
Soil fertility; in fact. 1t really means IN
creasing soil fertility by proper soil man
agement and Fertilization which Will re-
suit In the production of larger crops.
Tho Soil a MultipIier.
The soil is a multiplier and the more
talents we give 1t the more 1t Will gain.
In the old bible story the man who really
conserved his talent was the man VINO
used it and multiplied it. The seed placed
In the earth will bring forth some a hun
dred fold and some a thousand-foid &C
cording as the farmer has fertiiized the
soil and cultivated the crop.
Professor Snyder of the Minnesota ex-
pertinent station has shown that eight
tons of stable manure applied TO one acre
of land caused AN increase I'm the prootc-
ton of three succeeding crops, amounting
to $25 i'm value or over s. per ton for the
manure. The manure was applied to
clover. 1t increased the clover crop and
the next year gave a corresponding IN
crease in The. crop of corn following the
clover. and the oats which followed the
corn yielded 10 bushels more per acre on
the MANFRED land than on the land which
received no manure. but which had been
otherwise similarly cropped and titled.
At the Kansas experiment station ~
tons of we'll rotted manure applied as a
surface dressing for wheat produced u
total gain per acre in three years OF It.o4
bushels of wheat and 3.9 tons of alfalfa
hay. all valued at $44.91 or $4.9 per ton
for manure used. And yet one-half OF the
farmers of Iowa do not keep enough live
stock to Craze down their corn stalks and
too often the manure which is made on
the farm is allowed to waste 30 per cent
I'm value before it is spread on the land
by lying i'm the yards all summer exposed
to the action of weathering and drainage.
DIR. Hopkins. of Illinois, is authority for
the statement that the United States is
shipping to Europe each year more than
1.000.00 tons of our best phosphate rock
for which We receive at the mines the pal
try sum of s.. OW.O 900. If this phosphate We're
retained in this country and applied to
our soils ii would be worth not s5.Ur'.ON
but 81. 0OO,O N),0 for the production of food
for the oncoming generations of Amcri-
cans
Giving Soil Wealth to Europe.
Quoting further from DIR. Hopkins: ''For
5000. WO we export to Europe each year
enough phosphate for 1.+N.0W.0O bushels
of wheat or twice the average crop of the
entire United States. Meanwhile our 10
y-ear-average yield is IA bushels per acre
while Gerlnany's yield has gone w, Il, -
bushels. Great Britain's to SO bushels a,si
Denmark's to more than 40 bushels rs
the average for Il decade"
BY planting cowpeas AS Il catch crop
after wheat at the Kansas experiment.
station and blowing them under for green
manure 1 was able to increase the yield
of the succeeding crops of corn at lie
rate of u bushels per acre for five yeas.
by careful and timely preparation of tn"
seed-beI l have doubled the Yield %:
wheat in a single season at the Kansas
experiment station, as compared With
careless methods of seed-bed preparation
which are too often practiced.
1t is true that our agricultural teaching
and methods of farm practice have been
largely to increase yields at the expense.
of soil fertility. The Campbell method
of culture is an example. where the ,ilr-
pose is to increase crop yields by timely
anu c3TeIul CuAIlFdtlOU OI tu0 SOIL. ~ prop
err thing to do, but the. scientific tillase of
the soil should be combined with crop ro-
tation, green manuring and the use of
farm-yard manure and other necessary
fertilizers or else 1t becomes simply a
method of more apidl mining the soil of
Its fertility.
Again the method of intensive farming
and continuous heavy application of fer
~tilizers is no. more to he encouraged than
the opposite of depicting the native fer
tility of the soil. because such an inten-
sive system ii widely practiced will tend
to over-production and waste and may ul-
timately result in the depletion OF the sup
ply of mineral soil fertilizers.
Land Needs Rest.
We read in the bible that the children
of Israel were commanded by God to rest
their land ever seventh year which they
did and we may profitably follow their
example and rest the LAND occasionally:
perhaps not in the same way by letting it
lie idle but by rotation of crops and seed
ing down to grass and clover and using
the iai.d for pasture. thus resting the soil
from continuous cultivation and grain
cropping.
There are two general methods OF main
tanning soil fertility which are adapted for
use in Iowa. Each one includes a proper
rotation of crops. One method is to raise
enough livestock on the farm to consume.
the CrCY0 PTUOuCcO cAuiy Wv
manure and returning 1t again to the soil,
adding perhaps occasionally. as the soil
grows older, a little ground lime stone to
correct the acidtty produced by the con-
tinual decay Of organic matter.
But all cannot engage in livestock farm
ing. We must have surplus grain to sup
ply human food. The fertility of grain
growing land may be maintained by prac-
ficine a system Of crop rotation including
green manuring with the application of
phosphate and ground lime stone. Grain
farms handled In this way should not de-