The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-04-21
TOO MUCH SOIL sTnIULANT.
ON thee Macon Telegraph.

From thee Macon Telegraph.
Commercial fertilizers for the soil
are very much like high stimulants
for the human system. When the
habit is formed of renewing the
strength of the land by the use of
fertilizers the requirement becomes
greater and greater all of the time.
Stimulants are all right if properly
used and used in connection with
other methods-natural methods,
too-are adopted for keeping up the
soil Men cannot live by bread or
meat alone, and the man who de-
ponds upon artificial stimulants for
his strength, energy and productive
power will soon find his strength and
energy gone and his body the easy
prey of all of the ills that human
life is heir to.
The same thing is true of the soil.
The best land can be easily ruined
by the excessive use of commercial
fertilizers unless other measures are
adopted to keep up its strength.
Where fertilizers are depended upon
entirely the soil becomes the breed
ing place of germs and bacteria that
bring disease to the crops. The nat
ural way of renewing the soil is to
diversity and rotate the crops and let
the lands rest. The old Jewish idea
was to let the land rest one year in
seven so that it would regain the ele-
ments which it had given up in pro-
ducing crops.
In the South, where cotton is our
principal crop, the farmers have neg
lected the planting of leguminous
crops as a means Of keeping up the
fertility of the soil. The mad race to
raise cotton year after year on the
same land, with never a change, has
caused the farmers to forget all about
the effect which the One-crop system
was having upon their lands. They
realized that more fertilizer was
needed each succeeding season and
that new diseases were constantly
breaking out in the crops, but they
did not stop to reason why. Like the
confirmed drunkards, they never
blamed the booze" for their ills.
At this season of the year the
Southern farmers ought to plant COW
peas on every vacant spot of land
about their farms, even if there is
no intention of gathering them. The
cowpea is regarded as one of the
most valuable leguminous plants. 1t
is quick to grow, fourishes every
where, supplies nitrogen to the soil
and puts the land in good physical
condition. The chief object in plant
ing cOWpeaS is to return to the soil
the store of nitrogen which has been
taken out by other plants. The vines
make good hay, but are more Valua-
BILE when turned under, as they in
crease the drouth-resisting quality of
the soil.
1t is a long established fact that
soil without humus is not pro-
ductive soil. The soil may have an
abundance of plant food, but unless
the humuS is there its productive
power is poor and uncertain. The
cowpea, like all leguminous plants,
possesses the power of gathering nj
trogen from the air and storing it
away in the soil. The secret of good
farming is in alternating those plants
which get nitrogen from the air and
those which take it from the soil.
If the farmers would study these
things they would find it much easier
to reduce their fertilizer bills and at
the same time add to the real pro-
ductiveness of the soil. When God
gave us a soil and climate capable
of producing such an endless variety
of products He expected the tai
ents" to be used, and those farmers
who conform to the laws which He.
made will find their avoCatiOn beset
with tho fewest difficulties