Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1915-07-27
Making the Soil Friendly.

Making the Soil Friendly.
There is one phase of the lime discus
sion which does not seem to be thor
oughly brought out. The writer ba
many times heard Prof. Alva Agee us'
the term, "Make the soil friendly"
know of no other truer maxim than th'
above quotation. Most any farmer car
get good stand of the grasses and clio
yer if his soil is in good heart, properly
seeded and followed by plenty of mois
ture through the summer.
The moisture conditions of the greater
part of New England for the past siz
years have been against seeded grasses
These are usually sown with spring
grain, either oats, wheat or barley,
which in a dry time use up the soil
moisture to such an extent as TO largely
kill out the grasses in an unfriendly soil.
In the past, have laid this dying ont OF
the new-seeded grasses entirely to
drouthy conditions, but such Is not the
case, at least in good many instances.
Newly seeded grasses will die out in a
very dry time in an unfriendly soil, al
though it may be rich in plant food,
when, were the soil friendly, the same
amount of dry weather will have but
little effect in preventing good catch
with a heavy yield the following year.
To test field, as to its need of lime.
the writer lined small plot some 80
feet square on the top of one of the dry.
est knolls in the field. This was applied
in September. when the sod was being
worked up with a cutaway harrow pre-
pairing it for potatoes the next season.
When 1t came to grass following pots-
toes this lined spot had heavy crop OF
hay, while the balance of the field bad q
very poor crop, killed out, according to
my opinion, by six weeks drouth in
the early summer of the year it was
seeded. Yet there was fine catch Of
clover on the spot made friendly by linn
ing two years previous.
There Is grave question in my mind
whether or not part of the troubles OF
the potato growers OF southern Maine
are not traceable to the lack of lime In
their soils. 1t has seemed to me that
lined soil was not favorable to some Of
the potato diseases, like Rhizoctonia.
Thus have in small way been lining
some of my potato land previous to
planting potatoes, and this has brought
out very forcefully the difference be-
tween having a soil friendly to the
grasses or hostile to them.
In the spring of 1913. lined q small
patch of 1-2 acres. This was plowed
ON an average 10 inches deep, being well
turned, and one ton per acre OF agricul-
tural lime broadcasted on the furrow
before narrowing. The season being
dry, no apparent result was noted in the
growth or freedom from diseases in the
potatoes. The patch was plowed in the
spring of 1914 and sown to wheat and
seeded about May Is. Both grasses and
clover came finely, but no better than |
have had it on most of land have seed
sd in the last ten years, but, contrary to
all my seeding, where no lime has been
used, this lived through the dry weather
and was a fine sight after the wheat was
harvested. A part of this piece was clay,
and low, and fully expected the clover
to be all winter.killed on this low clay
portion of it. To-day June 14), the
growing grass is at least two feet high
and stands as thick as any I have ever
seen on any field, and will produce
very heavy crop of hay, even If no rain
falls before it is cut.
This piece has never had any barn.
dressing on il since / have farmed 1t,
some fifteen years, and probably not for
thirty to forty years in all. The point
il, that the soil was made friendly to the
grasses by the lime, which, being ap-
piled on the furrow before fitting to
plant potatoes, the cultiva,ing of the
digging, with the plowing and
fitting for the wheat the next season,
worked the lime through the
soil plowed, so that the whole mass of it
was in that friendly condition 80 aptly
set forth by Professor Agee.
Had this lime been applied just before
sowing the wheat and seeding, doubt
very much IL the results would have
been so tremendous. 1t would not have
been possible to have gotten it so mixed
the whole depth plowed as to
have made those friendly conditions that
would have carried the young grass
long summers drouth, long
dry fall, and hard spring conditions fol-
lowing.
l have hardly. If ever seen the grass in
general looking 40 poorly on this date as
it is at the present time all over the
southern part of the state, yet were all
my fields as friendly to the grasses as is
this 1-2 acre piece l have above de-
scribed, would harvest as large a hay
crop az the farms ever produced.-E. A.
Rogers, in Maine Farmer.