Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1914-01-22
VALUABLE FERTILIZERS FOR
HENDERSON CORN CROPS.
Stable and Green Manures Should be
Main Dependence; Supplement
With Commercial Fertilizers.
(Southern Farm Journal.l

tSouthern Farm Journal.)
In the last issue of Southern Farm
Journal the editor answered a ques-
ton as to whether or not he believed
in the s of commercial fertilizers
INSTEAD of barnyard manures." He
said that he did not believe in the use
of commercial fertilizers instead Of
farm manure. but did believe in using
them in connection with, or as a sup
Element to. barnyard and green ma
nures. He also tried to explain BRIT
1y what fertilizers are and how they
should be used.
OF course, it would be impossible
TO treat the whole subject of fertiliz-
ers in a single article, for this is one
of Of the most important and most
complicated matters with which the
fsrmer has to deal. The fundamental
principles underlying the use of fer
~tilizers con be stated in comparatively
little space, but when it comes to ap-
plying these principles so as to get the
best results from the use of fertilizers
each crop and each soil presents new
problems.
The farmer who would get the most
cut of the money he spends for ferti-
liners, or who would use them to~the
best advantage of his crops and his
soil, will lever learn all he needs to
know about the subject. Always
there will be something new he needs
te know. Even the chemists and soil
experts who have studied the fertiliz-
ers for years admit that there are
many things they cannot tell us, and
are all the time finding out new facts
and arriving at new conclusions.
The Farmers Biggest Problem.
In view of these facts, surely no
reader will think it needless for us to
revert many times to a discussion of
fertilizers and of soil fertility, or feel
that we are wasting time when we re-
peat over and over-as we expect to
|. do-the fundamental facts of soil con-
%servation and upbuilding.
The farmers biggest problem is to
make his farm rich and keep it so.
The man who wears out" or runs
down his land is a poor farmer no
matter what else he may or may not
do. The man who wastes his soil
wastes the very basis of his living.
Certainly he makes vain his hope Of
future profits. This is why we have
so much to say in this issue about the
care of the soil, and why we shall
have much to say about it in the flu
ture. If our readers have good land
they will prosper and-so shall we.
If they run down their land, they will
grow poorer as the years go by, and
so shall we.
Back to the Subject.
All this is a long introduction to-
CT rather a long ramble from-the
subject we started out to discuss.
Still we shall let it stand. If we, can
only get readers to realize that their
first duty is to take care of their land
we shall have done more for them
than We could do by giving detailed
information about the use Of fertiliz-
era on corn or any other crop.
In part of our territory it is the
common practice to use commercial
fertilizers on the corn crop; in other
sections they are scarcely used at all.
The sections that do not use fertilizers
make bigger average crop, too, than
the sections that do use them. This
however, is not because they do not
use the fertilizers, but because they
pay more attention to other matters
of more Importance.
On another page we a something
about the folly of planting corn on.
per land. "A rank, quick-growing
crop like corn, which requires a great
amount of plant food to produce a
crop of small total value-as compar-
ed with many other crops-cannot
proftably be produced if these plant
foods must be bought and paid for in
the form of commercial fertilizers.
Even if the soil were a~bundantly sup
piled with plant food a poor corn crop
might result. 1t would almost surely
result if the soil were lacking in veg
etable matter and if a long dry spell
came in June and July. The average
corn crop is cut short at some time
during its growth by a lack of water.
Any soil, then, that does not hold
water well is a poor corn soil, and Il
is a great risk to spend much money
for fertilizers to apply to q corn crop
on such soil.
Cotton is different. This crop viii
stand a considerable amount Of dr.
yynafHor wifhouf SprionS injury and