Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1913-11-04
"Bread from Stones. :"

ocrat. Paris. Ne.
"Bread from Stones"
The subject Of soil fertility or how t
keep and make soil pro6tably produc
tive are questions that are always inter
es,ing and valuable. There is scarcel!
any farmer who does not desire to know
how to make his soil yield greater re
turn.
DR.. C. G. Hopkins has for many years
been studying the soil and to determine
principles which will make for q profita
Bile aud permanent agriculture. He re.
Gently wrote Hoards' Dairyman. as fol
lows:
"On 'Poorland Farm we produce fol
the market wheat, some corn, cowpea Ol
so, bean seed, clover seed, cows, hogs
and horses, and number of minor prod
ucts. We include pastures in our rota-
riun system, aud we like to have abun
dance of pasture and actually do plow
under considerable clover.
1--WE try to return to the land all ma.
uure produced on the farm so far a,
practicable. The cornstalks are return
ed directly, and the straw either direct
ly or in manure. In harvesting the
grain crops We plan to leave the stubble
lust as long as possible; thus in harvest.
ing the 1918 wheat crop We had the
binder set To the highest possible limit
"In the rotation as now practised We
have legumes growing on the land in
normal season ON five fields out of six,
including, OF course, the young clover
growing with the nurse crop, and in ad-
luton we ,ow legumes in the corn at the
time of the last cultivation when cnndi-
tinns are favorable"
In Circular No. l6S Of the Illinois Ex-
pertinent Station, Bread from Stones,
DR.. Hopkins further describes the meth
ds he has used in building up an aban.
doned farm:
In Noven Der 1908, purchased farm
in Southern Illinois at cost OF less than
$40 an acre. 1t comprised about 400
acres of poor gray prairie land (the COM
monest type of soil in about twenty
counties iu that part of the state) and a
few acres of timber land.
TWAS christened "Poorland Farm"
by others who knew Of its impoverished
condition, and finally adopted this as
the farm name.
In 1918 40 acre field of this farm pro-
iuced 1920 bushels of wheat; and be-
cause of numerous requests for informa-
ton regarding the treatment that has
been given the land, this circular is is-
sued. This particular forty acres was
bought at SIS an acre. 1t had been
agriculturally abandoned for five years
prior to 1904, and was covered with a
scant growth of red sorrel, poverty
grass aud weeds.
During the ten years, this field has
been cropped with six-year rotation ln-
Guiding one year each of corn, oats Tor
cowpeas), and wheat, and three years of
meadow and pasture with clover and
timothy.
A fairly good stand of volunteer clover
appeared with the oats in 1911 and this
was allowed to produce crop OF clover
hay in 1912, wheat being seeded in the
fall of that year for the 1918 crop men,
toned above.
During the ten years about four tons
Der acre of ground limestone and two
tons per acre of fine ground raw rock
phosphate have been applied to 81 acres
OF this field. Two applications have
been made OF each material; the phos-
pha,e was plowed down for the corn
crops of 1904 and 1910, and the lime
stone was applied in the fall and winter
of l9O4-5 and after the ground was
plowed for wheat in the fall Of 1912.
The entire 40 acre field was covered
with one uniform application of ak
loads Der acre of farm manure with 80
bushel spreader.
A six-rod strip entirely across the
field $50 rods) received the same applica-
ton of manure aud the same rotation Of
crops as the remaining 81 acres, but no
phosphate was applied to this strip, and
no limestone was applied to it until the
fall of 1912, when the regular applica-
ton (about two tons per acre) was ap-
Piled to one-half (three rods) OF the six
rod strip. ,
Only SO acres uf this field was seeded
to wheat in the fall of 1912, a lane hav-
ing been fenced off On one side; and the
1920 bushels were produced on the 80
acres.
The actual yields were as follows:
ll-2 acres with farm manure alone
produced II l-2 bushels per acre.
Il2 acres with farm manure and the
one application of ground limestone pro-
duced 10 bushels per acre.
SO acres with farm manure aud two
applications of ground limestone and two
Of background phosphate produced 80 2
bushels per acre.
The cost of two tons of limestone de-
livered at my railroad station is - %,
and raw rock phosphate has averaged
about So IS per ton, making 80 per acre
the cost for each six years. To this
must be added the expense OF hauling
these materials two miles from the sta
ton and spreading them on the land,
W hich l estimate at SO cents per ton.
This makes the average annual cost 81 10
Der acre for the limestone and phOs-
phate spread on the field, and this aver
age annual investment resulted in the in.
crease of "a bushels of wheat per acre in
1918.
Thus we may say that the previous ap-
plicatious of these two natural stones
brought about the production in 1913 vi
S64 bushels of wheat, sufficient to FUR
nish years supply of bread for more
than hundred people. No high-priced
OF artificial commercial fertilizers are
used on this farm.
As rule, the check strips across each
of the six 40.acre fields in the rotation
are not harvested separately from the
rest of the fields. The limestone and
phosphate have produced even more
marked differences In clover than in
wheat; and and where the first applica.
ton of limestone was made to the 3rod
check strip, as we'll a. to the 81 acres re-
ceiving rock phosphate, the superiority
of the phosphate and limestone together
over the the limestone alone has been
exceedingly marked on both clover and
wheat; and of course the wheat and 9th
or grain crops are benefited not only by
the limestone and phosphate but also by
the previous Increased growth Of clover
on the well-trested land, especially
where this is pastured or plOwed under.
portland Farm 10 in no sense an exper-
iment station, aud neither is 1t show"
farm. 1t 10 operated solely from the
economic standpoint, aud with the full
underst anding from the beginning that
general farming Is not highly profitable
business, and that IL 10 highly unprofit-
able on poor land. Onihe other hand
1t 10 equally we'll known that intelligent
permanent soil improvement on land
that must be or will be farmed Ia both
the safest and the most profitable in'
vestment open to farmer and land owner
But both the difficulties and the meth
ods OF building up rundown soil have
been repeatedly discussed by the writer,