Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1915-03-19
CHAPTER v.
THE spring and summer-in fact.
the whole year was a very
busy one for Sam. And it was

busy one for Sam. And it was
not less SO for Florence and
Mrs. Powell. Florence often helped
Der brother when the work crowded.
and Mrs. Powell put in all her spare
time IN the garden. melon patch and
orchard.
On the contest acre Sam was forced
TO do all the work himself. The rules
were strict on this point. and after
Sans patch bad been laid of and
measured by a committee be himself
planted the corn and no one else struck
a lick in It's cultivation.
Sans irst planting was the irish
potatoes. He bedded up an acre.
dragged down the beds almost fiat and
planted them early In March. Next
came the contest acre. and when that
was finished he planted four more
acres In corn. making five in all. Their
turned to the cotton.
Next came the cane. and Sam sowed
this broadcast n very thick. for he
wanted to make hay Of it. If the
stalks grow large and stir it doesn't
make good hay.
The young farmer wound up the first
round of planting by sowing the OF.
chard in rye. His idea was to let no
bit Of ground lie idle. but to keep some
thing growing on it instead OF weeds.
The weed problem vas a pretty hard
one for Sam. so many had gone to seed
on the place. But he determined that
not one should make seed this year
So he was the busiest farmer In the
whole community. TIe plowed and
hoed constantly. but 1t was mostly
blowing, for Sam soon learned that
hoeing is a mighty slow way to kill
weeds and grass compared with plow-
ing.
People passing along by the Powell
place marveIed at the clean, well cui-
tivated little farm. But Sam consid-
cred other needs of the crops besides
cultivation.
The soil of the place was not nearly
so poor as the n~eighbors had said it
was-not even so poor as Sam had
thought The trouble was that the
surface OF the ground had merely been
scratched. and he had remedied this by
thorough cultivation. Still the crops
lacked something, and he found that
each acre had certain qualities. AS he
studied the farm he began to see that
each bit of land was strong in certain
ways and weak In others.
There vas no time to have soil analy-
sis made this year. but he began to
study closely the wild vegetation and
trees growing about and to read the
bulletins and the book he had bought
on "How Crops Grow" 1t wasn't ar
easy subject by any means. Sam read
and reread the book and finally went
over it slowly and studied it page by
page. Pretty soon be knew nearly as
much about the soil he was ~cultivating
as any expert could have told him.
Here is what he learned about soil fer
tility:
Acid in soil hat causes crops to fire
and die is indicated by sorrel growing
on the land Acid can easily be detect
ed also by getting a slip of blue litmus
p for a nickel at the drug store
and pressing 1t in a ban of the soil.
II it turns red there is acid. An appi-
cation of lime cures this.
Crops and plants of all kinds are fed
by several elements of the soil, but
there are three more important than
the rest-nitrogen. potash and phos-
phoric acid.
Nitrogen forms the leaves of plants
that part of the plant body which
breathes.
Potash makes the trunk. stalk and
tuber of plant or tree.
Phosphoric acid reproduces-sets the
blooms and makes abundant seed and
fruit.
Sam learned these things from read
ing. But. when he knew them, all he
had to do was to look about the farm
and learn more things by observation
Where trees grew or had grown well
he knew that potash was plentiful II
leaves were rank. nitrogen was album
dant. If flowers formed and fell of
the plants before they should he knew
the soil needed phosphoric acid.
Finally the young farmer formed
what be had learned into nine rules
and wrote them down in the back Of