The gazette-times. [volume] (Heppner, Or.) 1912-1925, 1914-07-09
|T IS LITTLE WONDER land values

slump in q section where you can
put four cement posts and two men
on spike-tooth harrow and then simply
"mark" (not scrateh) the surface Of
the iron-Gke soil, and where farmers"
burn their straw and have not spread
q load Of barnyard manure (apparent-
y) since the valley was settled.
1t makes little difference, practical
~, how much plant food soil con-
tains, if it is so hard and dry that the
roots cannot get it, bence the word On
the physical condition Of sells at the
close of this letter. This physical con
dition we can generally control by wise
handling. The necessary chemical ele-
ments, if lacking in soil, we must buy
and spread.
Fifteen chemical elements enter into
OF make up the plant body. These may
be studied in the per cent composition
of corn:
Elements obtained in abundance from
air and water-Oxygen, 100000; car
ben, 45.0o0%o; hydrogen, S.0oo%.
Elements that the corn plant must
get from the soil and which we must
buy, if deficient-Nitrogen, 1.76ofa;
phosphorus, 5000; potassium, .S4o6.
Elements seldom lacking in the soil
in the small amounts required, except
calcium Q4me), in regions free from
limestone. It is also added to "sweet-
en'' or correct acidity of soils-Mag-
nesium, 1859; calcium, .0229S; iron,
.0Osqo; Sulphur, .oO4qd; Silicon, OLAF;
Sodium, .0l3qo; Chlorine, .Ol3%.
Necessary Elements in Soil
A plant cannot make something out
Of nothing any more than man can,
and while most Of the above elements
exist in air, water and soil in super
abundance for the plants needs, the
three elements, nitrogen, phosphorus
and potassium, practically limit and de-
termine soil fertility. Nitrogen, most
vital of all, does not exist as a mineral
in soil, but must be added from decay
of plant and animal bodies. Of the
other tive, phosphorus is likely to be
the limiting element in sell, but po-
tassium compounds, as well as those of
calcium, are 50 readily soluable that
they are likely to be ieached away, as
is the case with peaty loan soils. No
matter what the abundance Of the
others, lack of any essential element
limits plant growth; it IS like a store
house full of food with the key lost
So black peat soil is loaded with
nitrogen and may contain a good
amount of phosphorus but be so poor
in potassium that corn planted in it
will make only so much growth as the
potassium contained in the kernel will
permit-perhaps three or four stunted
leaves. Add few pounds of potassium
to the acre-a 100 bushel crop actual
ly takes 73 pounds of potassium out of
an acre-and we get vigorous growth
and large crop.
Similarly the case Of lime as limit
ling element is shown by the following
experiments made in Maryland:
Produce during eleven years, per
acre-Four crops corn, no lime, 9S
bushels, lined (carbonate), l45 bushels;
three crops wheat, no lime, 80 bushels,
lined (carbonate), 43 bushels; four
crops hay, no lime, EGO tons, Lined
/oorhono+aN 90 tnna
Rich bottom land, season fairly dry,
1S97-Plat I received $50 pounds of dis
solved rock per acre, yield 1857
quarts; plat II received 700 pounds of
dissolved rock per acre, yield 2O,o66
quarts.
This shows that an addition Of ST
worth of phosphorus caused an increase
in the crop to the value of $353.55.
The plain farmers land rule is, or
has been in the past, eff the soil won It
grow crops, 60 somewhere else where