St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1918-01-26
.LEauMEs FoR FERTILlzER,

eSO TA
commercial fertilizer viii be expen.
sive and hard to get, barnyard manure
will as usual be limited, legumes will
be more important than ever. The
value OF these crops can no longer be
questioned and those who grow them
literally will be especially fortunate,
While the value Of legumes, such as
alfalfa, clovers, vetch, cowpeas, SOY
beans, velvet beans and peanuts are
now appreciated as crops for food and
feed they are not properly recognized
as crops to restore the soil in fer
tility, notably nitrogen that expensive
element in a fertilizer and the one the
easiest lost.
Some fact upon the value Of the
legumes as an aid to build up soil or
restore worn sell may be of benefit in
this connection. Facts and figures On
the results of growing these nitrogen
gatherers' will be given.
Some definite facts have been ascer.
tanned by a few of the. experiment
stations as to the amount of nitrogen
that may be expected from certain
legumes, AS will be understood, the
amount of nitrogen left in the soil
by Iegunaes will depend upon the
growth of the plants, the condition of
the soil and the incubation. Hereto
fore it has been known that the leg
umes deposit nitrogen in the soil with
the aid of certain soil organisms, but
little definite knowledge was obtain
able as to the amount of nitrogen I'M
der favorable circumstances.
At the Delaware station sowings of
three legumes were made, soy beans,
cowpeas and hairy vetch, July %. The
following shows the dry matter and
nitrogen in growth per acre: Soy
beans, $3.50 pounds dry matter in
tops, 756 in roots. Nitrogen in both
tops and roots, 1907 pounds. Cow
peas gave 3,718 pounds dry matter in
tops, 80 pounds in the roots. The
amount of nitrogen in both tops and
roots was 69.5 pounds. Hairy vetcll
was found to contain 1904 pounds of
dry matter per acre in the tops and
500 pounds in the roots. The amount
of nitrogen in both top and roots
was 1912 pounds.
It will be 9 from this experiment
that for Delaware soils such as at the
experiment station that soy beans are
better than either cowpeas or hairy
vech for soil fertility.
The New York Cornell station made
a test comparing cowpeas and yetch.
The crops were planted July Is and
the samples taken November 10. The
following data shows the results:
Hairy vetch produced 1924 pounds
dry matter in the tops, 567 pounds in
the roots. The amount of nitrogen in
the soil by tops and roots was 256
pounds. Cowpeas produced 1892
pounds dry matter n tops. IN roots
454 pounds. The pounds of nitrogen
left both tops ard roots was SIT.
The two experiments are quite dif.
ferent in results because, no 1cuht,
Of the difference in soil. But in both
experiments it was shown that these
crops added considerable nitrogen and
organic matter. There should be no
doubt as to the value of these crops
for soil fertility.
1t should be borne in mind that far
better results doubtless would have
been shown in favor of cowpeas had
these experiments been made in the
South or Southwest. Nevertheless,
SOY beans are known to be very valu
able as q crop to improve soil in many
localities of the Southwest. There are
farmers who prefer soy beans to cow
peas, but as a general rule cowpeas
are extensively planted both for
soil Improvement and for feed for
stock.
The safe rule is plant the legume (
hat grows best on your farm. It may
produce as much nitrogen at first !,
la some other, but as the soil gets :
ully %inoculated it is quite likely to !,
produce more. :
Hairy vetch is a winter crop. These .
experiments were made in early fall. !
may be planted in the early :