The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1914-09-18
CROPS AND SOILS AND
WHAT THEY SHOULD Be
To the Farmers of TennesseeA
Big Factor in Crop Growing.

to which too little attention has been
paid in the past, is the physical texture
or mechanical condition of the soils
upon which they are grown.
The average farmer thinks that so
long as his soils are filed with plant
food that he can produce profitable
crops, when, as a matter of fact, the
availability OF the plant food content
Of the soil governs the crop production
to much greater extent than the
amount OF such food.
The only practical difference existing
to-day between those soils which we
term worn out and the same soils when
the virgin forest had just been removed
lies in the difference in the physical tex
ture OF those soils, chemical analysis
showing that nearly identical amounts
Of plant food are present, with the ex-
ception Of nitrogen, but owing to the
bad mechanical condition of the soil
plants cannot make use of the food
which is there, and except for the fact
that we improve the condition OF these
worn soils to some extent by stirring or
cultivation, we could grow no crop at all.
Nature, IN preparing the earth for
mans habitation, stored up vast guam
titles Of plant food but left it to man $
ingenuity to render or keep available
for the use OF plants the necessary food.
She has at the same time furnished him
hundreds Of object lessons as to the best
methods Of doing this work, but man,
with his wasteful ways, has not kept
ss;;sA .s;sA.. sith nature in these matters; 80
that to-day, instead oi having carefully
observed the plant food stored up for
his use, he has lost irrevocahly a large
part of his patrimony, and this and sue
ceeding generations are confronted with
the problem, not so much as keeping,
but Of restoring the elements hereto
fore lost.
One OF the means Of both directly
and indirectly improving the physical
texture OF our soils is by the use OF
lime, its application to heavy clay
loans, rendering them easier OF culti-
yation by making them more porous
and lighter OF texture, while its appli-
cation to sandy lands has the opposite
effect, binding them together and maxi
ing them more retentiye OF moisture.
II also corrects acidity Of the soil and
promotes the growth OF legumous
plants, thus giving us larger amounts
81 vegetable matter to turn under. This
in turn furnishes food for the countless
thousands OF beneficial bacteria which
give life or productive capacity to our
soil, and where any free nitric acid is
present in the soil it unites with the
ime and forms nitrate Of calcium, a |
substance carrying nitrogen in the nj
rate, or readily available form.
In growing crops for the purpose OF
the physical texture OF the
'oiI, it is Better to grow some Of the
egumes, such as alfalfa, crimson, red or
he other cloyers, COW peas or soy beans,
IS we not only get as much green mat
er to turn under as from the non-Iegum-
nous plants, but we receive the addi-
ional advantage Of whatever nitrogen
he former class OF plants may have
gathered from the air.
OF these crops the clovers are to be
preferred on account oil their enormous
DOT growth, there being sufficient Of
his, even where the crop il mown for
lay, to greatly increase the productive
;apacity Of soils where they are grown,
md the growth Of these crops will obvi-
lie the necessity Of subsoiling, as their
cots penetrate to such depth that when
hey decay the subsoil IS rendered por-
,us enough to allow the water to 20
Iown without the land having to be
'roken.
Where too much hardpan exists 70
IIow the roots free passage downward
will be better to break deeply with
isc plow or subsoil following the mold
oard pIow, but this should be done lar
nough in advance Of time Of seeding
!, give the grounds chance to settle and
ecome firm, or the frming can be
one BY narrowing and subsurface pack
ig. Il
BY systematic rotation 81 crops ii
hich the Ieguminous crops take their