The midland journal., 1917-02-09
mARY1AND's CROP PRODUCTION
Talk Given Before Cecil Farllers'
Club At January Meeting.

January meeting of The Cecil Farm
ers' Club.
All Marylanders, no matter what
/, may be. our station are deeply in
terested in the agricultural develop
ment of this commonwealth and are
anxious to do whatever lies within
our power to further its develop
ment. Realizing this fact it is prob
ably worth our while to see just
where this state stands in compar
ison with those around us, and to
obtain a measure of our present pro-
gress.
In the December report of the
Bureau of Crop Estimates is a table
giving the total 1916 value in each
state as nearly as is can be deter
mined, of thirteen of the important
farm crops. If the values in this
table be divided by the square miles
of land area within the states then it
is observed that in the value per
square mile of the crops mentioned.
Maryland stands fifth, being surpass-
ed by Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and
Delaware.
If ten-year average production
were used for comparison instead of
the 1915 crop, do not know what
the relative position of the states
would be, but we do know, as shown
by the accompanying table, that the
yield per acre of most farm crops is
increasing at a comparatively rapid
rate and If the increase in Maryland
is to be as rapid as that in the ada
cent states then we must all study
carefully our agricultural practices
to see where improvements are
possible
4 ATen year average yield per acre
in Maryland Of
Corn bus. Wheat bus. Hay tons
1886-95 23.5 1873 LIS
1907-16 349 1853 1929
"Figures taken from Agricultural
Year-books.
From the standpoint of crop pro-
duction our first problem is to
make available for plant use just as
much as possible Of those food ma
terials already present in the soil.
Our second problem is to save as
much as we can of these materials
after they have been built into plant
tissues and return them again to the
soil in the form of green manures
and cover crops, or more often in
the form of manure.
II, after these things are done,
there are still some one, two, or
three plant-fOod materials which are
not being used as rapidly as they
ought to properly balance those
more plentifully available, then our
third problem is to supply these by
some artificial means; the nitrogen
where possible, by the growth of
legumes, the phosphorus and potash,
as well as any additional supply of
nitrogen, by the use or commercial
fertilizers.
In this talk 1 shall deal principally
with the second of these problems,
namely, the care and handling of
manure for greatest returns. Among
the first definite field tests conducted
in this country were those on the
plots at the Pennsylvania Expert
ment Station where manure was ap
piled once during each rotation Of
corn, oats, wheat, and clover. Diff
ferent plots received applications at
the rate of 20, 16, and 10 tons per
acre and were compared with check
plots on which no. manure was ap
piled. The results obtained on
these plots show that the lighter ap-
plications of manure gave a greater
crop increase for each ton of manure
applied, therefore if one is not limit
ed in the area over which manure
may be spread, but is limited in the
amount, greater returns may be ex-
pected by spreading thinly.
At the Ohio Station s tons of stall
manure were put on some plots, in
comparison with others on which
tons of yard manure were applied,
and during more than twenty years
in which this manure application
has been made in each rotation, one
ton of stall manure has given
greater return than one ton of yard
manure. But this is not all, for
experiments have shown that con-
siderably more than one ton of stall
manure, If thrown into the yard and
left there for time, will be required
to make one ton of yard manure.
There are several reasons for this
loss. One is, that of the approx
mately ten pounds of nitrogen, five
pounds of phosphoric acid, and ten
pounds of potash that we may ex-
pect to find in an average sample of
stable manure, two-thirds of the
nitrogen and three-fourths of the
potash are in the liquid and the first
heavy rain will carry large guam
titles of this away. On the other
hand il the manure dries out and is