The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-06-27
COMPONENT PARTS
OF SOIL AND HOW TO
GET BEST RESULTS
THERE is NC SHORT CUT TO BIG
AND ABUNDANT
CROPS.
MUST UNLOCK PLANT FOOD
Make Available What Is In the Soil,
and Revive Il by Growing Proper
Crops in Rotation and Turning Un.
der Green Crops at Proper Time.

! (By Capt T. f. Peck, Commissioner
of Agriculture.)
1t is almost a daily Occurrences at
the department of agriculture to re-
ceive letters from farmers wanting to
know where and no wthey can get
their soil analysed, SO they can have
fertilizer made up to supply the de-
ficient plant food.
Some people image if they had an
analysis of thei rsoils they could sup
ply the deficiency in plant food with
special fertilizer, and that would in
sure maximum crops They would be
doomed TO disappointment. 1t would
be next to impossible to get an aver
age sample of soil, because the analy-
sis of two samples taken 100 feet
apart would vary greatly.
The farmer needs to know how to
make available the plant food he has
in his soil great deal more than he
does the exact amounts his soil con-
tains. His soil could be well sup
piled with nitrogen, phosphoric acid
land potash, the principal elements
needed, and they could be locked up
so as to be unavailable for plant
food.
| Any farmer knows what happens to
his soil if he works it too wet. He
,also knows that if he takes every
thing off of his ground every year and
turns no vegetable matter under, his
land is inclined to run together and
bake, break up cloddy, and this ten
|dency increases each year because it
is losing it's vegetable matter thu
mus). Such soil will not give the
plant growing on it the plant food it
contains.
If the farmer wants to make a sue
cess in farming he must make the
plant food available in his SOIL He
must study nature, as we'll as books,
if he does this. We know Of many
fields that during our boyhood days
produced good crops but with con-
slant cropping, taking everything off
land putting nothing back, they ceased
. to be profitable. They were abandon.
ed and allowed to grow up in weeds,
briars ard brush. After several years
, those fields were cleared up and
lagain would, for time, produce Prof.
liable rops until the supply of yege
table matter they had accumulated
Twas exhausted.
Now, if you want to build up your
son and make the plant food in il
available, just use the good, hard
common sense God has given you and
follow natures plan. The first thing
:. nature does is to increase the vegeta
BILE matter and mix it with the soil
and subsoil SO that the water, air anG
frost can penetrate it.
We have no worn out lands. We
have much with the surface sol
washed away but we can follow ma
lures lead; we can get green cror
Ito turn under; we can break up some
of the virgin subsoil and mix it with
the surface soil and vegetable matter
= during the winter; the rain frost ani
] air will work for us 10 making the
lplant food. We can grow leguminous
Icrops such as peas, beans, clover ant
+ Iveatches to increase our nitrogen
We an use, with care and intelli
gence, reasonable amounts of aciG
phosphates, potash and crushed lime
: We can by following natures lead
g restore our lands to their virgin fer
v tility and get a fair compensation fol
: our labor.
:, Brother farmer, we have been look
: ing for some hard problem to solve
3 I'VE thought there was some scientific
short cut to big crops. We have neg
e lected the simple things we could do
= We have ignored nature as our teach
e er and we have paid the penalty. We
: have tried to jump from the bottom
t to the top of the ladder at a SINGLE
e bound We cannot do it. We must
j climb round at time The scien
Y lists at she top reached their posi-
ton by study Of nature and natural
conditions. Fact step made the next
one possible.