The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-07-26
REMEDIES FOR SICK SOILS

sition for both present and future profits.
Hauling a load of manure to the field is
a similar business proposition to haul
ing load of corn to a bunch of beef
sters or carrying slop to hogs Both
represent judcious feeding from which
legitimate profits may be returned. Both
represent giving something where some
thing is expected.
On the general farm where the land
must as rule be made to produce crops
and feed itself at the same time, the
farmer must feed back to the soil every
available pound of waste products.
Either manuring crops must be grown
and plowed under for soil food, or ami
mails must be kept, fed, and bedded SO
that stable and lot manure will be pro-
duced in abundance One of the great
advantages of the small grain crop on
the livestock farm is in the straw fur
nished for bedding the animals for alb
sorbing the liquid and mixing with the
solid manure to save all to feed the soil
for other crops. The art of making
money with animals is in bedding them
heavily to make more and better ma
nure for larger crop yields per acre
Young men who have paid for farms and
become rich have almost invariably been
actively engaged in tearing down straw
stacks, bedding animals, and hauling out
manure in winter. They have built their
farm and fortune on foundation of ma
nure and rich soil. There is a poetic
vision in the chemical transformation OF
load of trash into clover blossoms and
golden grain, and, incidentally, coin al
the end.
Deep down in the soil are mineral plant
foods which ordinary shallow-rooted
plants do not reach and use. 1t is posi-
Bile to enrich the top layer of soil by
reaching down and lifting up this deeper
store of mineral foods 1t can be done
cheapest and best by means of deep
rooted plants, such as clovers, cowpeas,
and the like. These deep-rooted legumes
not only feed on and bring to the sur
face soil plant foods from deep down in
the soil, but they extract free nitrogen
from the air to combine with the mineral
elements to form nitrates, and at the
same time they loosen up and improve
the physical nature of the soil in which
they grow. 1t is possible to feed the soil
fairly well with the roots of legume
crop and at the same time harvest and
use the parts growing above ground. II
the harvested legume crop is fed on the
farm practically all of it will eventually
be returned to feed the soil.
GREEN MANURING
In growing crop for green manuring
whether it be a legume or non-legume
crop to occupy the land for full year
The manuring crop can be grown be-
tween rows of corn, for example, with
out interfering with the corn crop
Rye may be sown in the fall and plowed
under the following spring just before
maturity In time for a summer crop oil
some kind. Cowpeas may be sown ir
the summer following the small graT
harvest, to be turned under the same fal
for fall seeding of grain or grass. II
central and southern sections it is never
necessary for green manuring crop tt
monopolize the land for a full growing
season, as the growing season is long
In these sections sudan grass will grow
to full maturity in three months, and nc
doubt when sudan grass becomes more
common and the seed cheaper this new
crop can be used probably for soil en-.
richment, the same as rye or the le.
gumes. On farms where few animals are
kept and where very little manure Ii
made it is imperative that green manur
ing crops should be grown and plowed
under frequently to feed the soil being
impoverished by other crops.-Successfu
Farming.