The Carlisle independent., 1918-08-15
PROBING PETER TO
 nn, PAY PAUL"
The Way Some People Figure
 The Fertility Problem

A certain North Dakota farmer had, besides other crops, POO acres in wheat about ready for cutting. After admir- ing it sufficiently and learning that it would run about 20 bushels to the acre, a city visitor innocently asked, "How much profit will there be in thatcrop?" sit will sell for close to six thousand dollars" replied the farmer. seThe cost for blowing, seeding, harvesting, threshing and hauling to the elevator will be something between four and five dollars an acre, say five dollars: There will be nearly five thousand dollars profit in it for me. That is what I call real independence"
 That man is losing out because he is not figuring feytility in the cost of production. Fertility is the farmers capital, and he cannot draw on it ir- definitely without replacing it.
 Cost of Fertility First Consideration
 That twenty -bushel crop on the Dakota farmers POO acres yielded total of 4,O00 bushels. Experiments show us that the fertility extracted by that 4,000-bushel crop was as fol- lows: Nitrogen 5.690 pounds: phos- phorus 960 pounds; and potassium l.040 pounds. At present prices, that nitrogen would be valued at Se50, phos- phorus BPS, and potassium S62, giving total of S940 worth of plant food used by that one crop-not taken into consideration by the farmer.
 This kind of figuring perhaps goes on right in our own community. The loss of fertility is So gradual and it's reduction so subtle as not to be noticed for years. But once in a while now we notice that the crops do not mature as rapidly as formerly. They finger the soils vigoI of years ago is not there. SiloS are called upon to save immature corn, and so is the method of "hogging down."
 We are urged to speed up production. With more efficientytools, better seeds, and a greater demand for food, still more of the farmers capital will be taken out without being replaced. How is it to be maintained2
 The use of legumes, good rotations, commercial fertilizers, etc, can, of course, be employed, but what about the barnyard manure?
 Every Bit of Manure Should Be on
 the Fields
 Do we realize that it has crop in. creasing value of $5.50 ton now? Most farmers do recognize it's increased value due to increased price of crops, but there are still many farms where we can see the cattle standing knee deep in fertility that should be incor- carrying away rich brown streams of nitrogen, potash, and phosphorus that the crops are hungry for and that other farmers are paying good prices for in the form of commercial fertilizers. Nitrogen gas is Steaming up and feat- ing away with dollars and dollars worth of leaf and stalk building material. Spreader Most Important Tool on Farm
 There is one thing that will correct this waste better than most anything else. 1t is the use of a spreader. The investment is good one, for the spreader should pay for itself on fifteen acres or less the first season by the crop increases it produces even over the best of hand spreading. But while the investment is remarkably fine one, the fact that the farmer has money tied up in the machine will make him use it oftener, and frequent spreading is just what is needed. Spread on the soil, the manure either dries out and stops fermenting, or los ing ammonia, or else the plant food is washed into the soil by the rains. The spreader saves so much time and labor that the work can be done often. The job becomes light chore instead of 8 heavy, disagreeable task. And my, what fine even work some of those new widespread spreaders dol
 Figure on Fertility
 let us not let rising prices fool us. The fertility bill has to be paid some time