The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1917-08-09
BY G. A. GoSS
In Successful Farming

Up to very few years ago there would
not an evening pass In the two or three
weeks following threshing but what one
could see several straw piles burning.
Now a burning straw pile is a rare
thing for farmers prefer to put that
straw out to interest on the very best
of security.
1t is wise thing not to burn your
straw-but it doesn't do you much good in
the stack IL you allow the stock to tram
pie 1t under foot and waste it, or
allow 1t to remain until it rots to the
ground. Working around straw stack
is decided disa dvantage, besides you
lose the use of that ground during the
four or five years necessary for it to
get back to good producing condition.
You can't afford to burn your straw,
you are losing money when you allow it
to stand idly in the stack-the only thing
to do is to feed it or spread it,
Every ton OF wheat straw put back on
the land increases the fertility of that
land to the amount of $3.50. In other
words, by returning the straw to your
fields you are guaranteeing to yourself
an increase of at least two bushels of
grain more per acre on next years crop.
By burning your straw stack or allow
ing it to rot to the ground you are send
ing up in smoke or allowing to stand idle
sum Of at least $500 Last year the
farmers of the United States invested
$10o, 100000 in commercial fertilizers in
return for the grain crops they had
sold off the farm; straw contains phos-
phorus and potash which is just as good
and will be a saving rather than an ex-
pense.
Humus is decayed vegetable matter. A
large part of the lands in the central
west are already are or coming to be
,1-s r. --
starving for want of it Straw spread
on the ground and turned under makes
humus. 1t is humus that makes poor
soil fertile; sandy soil more compact;
clay soil mellow and open, and every
kind of soil better able to hold moisture
and produce crops.
Did you ever notice how rank wheat
will grow on an old straw stack plot
It generally gets too rank because there
is an excess of plant food there That
straw scattered over the whole field
would produce a similar effect in proper
tionate degree on the entire crop. Phos-
phorus and potash are present in the
straw to a large extent and these the
young plants of next season can use;
the humus produced helps to make nitro
gen and nitrogen is an important cpnsti-
tuent Of the gluten in the. wheat kerr
mel.
The wheat crop is short this year be-
cause much of it was killed last winter
by drouth and freezing. Experiments
show that straw spread as a mulch on
winter wheat increases the crop value
many times more than the cost of spread
ing. Winter wheat covered with straw
does not heave ont as badly as does
that on bare land and the disasterous eff
fects of the changing weather of early
spring are not nearly SO noticeable. Tht
straw while on the surface prevents tn.
rapid evaporation Of water, but later il
the season the humus which it form.
serves as wick to bring up moisture tt
the little rootlets. Humus formed b,
straw absorbs a large amount of water
in the rainy season and gives it up read
lily to the growing crops in hot and windy
days that follow. Wheat well mulchet
easily gets an earlier start in spring ant
keeps that start throughout the sea
son.